Once upon a time, in the mythical days of prince JFK

Rating: 9/10 (4 March 2018)

This is a brilliant movie, a clever fable positioned by Guillermo del Toro in the early 60s, when a fair prince rulled the country, and every thing seemed simpler and more straight forward. And this is precisely what the fable telling us - it never was simple and straight forward. The biggest patriot could be a monster in disguise, the traitor could hide a kind soul inside and a mute, may speak out the clearest of all when calling us all to be more human.
I'll be repeating everyone else saying how beautiful it is. The set design, the CGI, the editing, the cinemtography. Every minute detail combines to create a fairytale setting in early 60s Baltimore, and it's so perfectly done that one feels that both parts of the reality presented in the movie are indeed real. The acting is part of the truthful feel of the film Michael Shannon, Richard Jenkins, Michael Stuhlbarg, Octavia Spencer and everybody else in this magnificient cast, Topped by Sally Hawkins, who deserves an Oscar, which I fear she won't get, because some consider her being a mute in the film a less complete performance. In my book it's a perfect 10. I haven't seen such level of perfection in acting since Hugh Jackman in Logan, and he never got nominated.
I have my reasons for ranking this masterpiece just 9 (should've been a 9.5+) but I don't think these are important. The movie is so close to perfection the tiny faults it does have, become insignificant. Just go see it if you get a chance.