He has reached his peak

Rating: 7/10 (27 January 2018)

Guillermo del Toro makes an adult version of ET with some added Beauty and the Beast, Starman and magical realism.
Set in early 1960s Baltimore with the Cold War in full swing. Sally Hawkins plays Elisa Esposito. She is mute, lonely with some scarring on her neck. Each morning is the same, bath, masturbate and get ready for work.
Elisa lives in a creaky apartment above a cinema. One of her few friends is in the neighbouring apartment who can sign with her. Giles (Richard Jenkins) is a veteran commercial artist who seems to have had some sort of breakdown, had drink problems and wants to have a relationship with the man working in a diner.
Elisa is a janitor in a top secret research lab with her best friend Zelda (Octavia Spencer.) The lab is doing experiments with an amphibious creature from the black lagoon (Doug Jones) captured by Strickland (Michael Shannon) in the Amazon. The creature as worshipped like a god but here he is experimented on and tortured.
Elisa when she is cleaning the lab manages to communicate with the creature. She feeds him boiled eggs, plays music and dances for him. She secretly feds him every night with egg and listens to music in his room, and they become close to each other. Her actions are unnoticed by Strickland but she has been observed by scientist Dr Hoffstetler (Michael Stuhlbarg) who also wants to understand the creature and he is unhappy that the go ahead has been given to dissect the creature.
Now there is a race against time to save the creature.
Guillermo del Toro has created a watery, fantasy, charming Gothic romance with too much teal. I think he realises this himself by giving Strickland a teal Cadillac. Shannon plays an effective, sneering villain who himself is enchanted with Elisa's silence. There is horror and humour in this movie with a song and dance sequence with an amphibian. I am sure Doug Jones must have enjoyed that.