Monsters and Guillermo del Toro's The Shape of Water

After reading this WSJ review of Guillermo del Toro's new film, The Shape of Water, I can't wait to see it. There is no one who so well understands the translation of fairy tale to modern movies as well as Del Toro. The film is a story of two unlikely characters; Elisa, a mute and deaf cleaning lady in a government facility and a creature/monster held captive there. As always, Mr. del Toro's monster is complicated:  ���I have made it my evangelical mission in life to believe that what we call ���monsters��� in art are the embodiment of a beautiful imperfection....They are the embodiment of the ���other,��� and I needed to do a fairy tale in which we talked about empathy and love and saw the ���other��� in a different way.���

The setting is both modern, industrial, and yet also removed so as to allow the fantastic to dwell appropriately and powerfully within the film. Here's more from the review:  ".... Mr. del Toro based his movie���s aesthetic around the creature���s look, nature and color palate. The government facility is designed in Cold War-era grays and greens similar to the creature���s colors. Other fantastical elements are featured in the film to make a world in which the government is hiding a mysterious creature appear more believable. In one memorable scene involving an overflowing bathtub, Elisa���s apartment seems governed by its own law of physics....If you imagine this creature in a realistic-looking movie, it doesn���t work,��� said Mr. del Toro. ���You need to make it elevated so something that is not a real being can exist in it.���