Picture a dark corridor in an old apartment building. The hallway opens into a modest space, very quaint, and the camera focuses in on a deep emerald green sofa. It’s murky and dark, and at first glance there appears to be a woman sleeping peacefully on the couch in a silk nightgown.

Nothing unusual, right? But you look a bit closer and her inky black hair appears to be suspended in the air, and her clothing is swaying around her. In fact, the woman is actually hovering a few inches above the cushions.The whole room is actually submerged in water; everything is hazy with bubbles.

This is how the award-winning film “The Shape of Water” starts. Produced by Guillermo del Toro in 2017, this new film won multiple Oscars , including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Music Score.

The movie chronicles the life of a mute woman, Elisa, and her work as a cleaning-woman at a high-security government laboratory. She quickly forges a bond, which later develops into a romance, with the humanoid amphibian kidnapped from a river in South America that is the current subject of the lab’s studies, and the movie escalates from there.

Sally Hawkins plays the birdlike Elisa, and fans of the movie “Amelie” will find a kindred spirit in her character. She lives in a small apartment above a movie theater, and right down the hall from her best friend Giles, a middle aged, closeted gay man and struggling illustrator who she makes breakfast for every morning. There is a dreamy, ethereal quality to Elisa, her face ever-populated with a small smile, and she is often late to work, where she is chastised by her friend Zelda and a long line of other women waiting to get into their work as cleaning ladies for the government during the Cold War.

The story is both action and adventure as well as a love story with hints of fantasy. For example, the treacherous setting of America’s silent rivalry with Russia comes into play greatly in an almost separate plotline involving a Russian spy and the corruption of the American military and government at large.

This ominous and corrupt landscape and its terrors are not privy to a select group, and it eventually extends to Elisa and her little crew as they get more and more entangled in the life of this magical creature that various evil forces are intent on torturing to derive its secrets and powers.Throughout even the greatest of conflicts, Elisa seems to lead a charmed life, surrounded by two great friends who will support her through thick and thin, and a mystical humanoid who is very likely her soulmate.

However, this last part seems to be quite the turn-off for many people. Yes, the fact of a woman and a remarkably fish-like creature being physically as well as romantically intimate can be viewed as quite disturbing, and many would not hesitate to frame it as bestiality. At the same time, the movie isn’t about the oddity of interspecies sex: the creators of the film obviously knew what they were getting into and felt there was something else to this unique romance that transcends the abnormality of it.

And there is. The love story between Elisa and this mysterious creature is very sweet, and ensues from the beginning when Elisa shares her lunch of hard boiled eggs with him. They seem to understand each other completely, communicating through sign language, and each provide a sort of sanctuary for the other.

“The Shape of Water” is a beautifully crafted movie, vibrant with details from the time period and very successful in transporting the viewer into another world. With the themes of love in many forms, incredibly developed characters, and a sweet, lilting soundtrack, if you give it a chance, it is sure to sweep you up and carry you into its magical, watery universe.