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Starring Sally Hawkins, Michael Shannon, Richard Jenkins, Octavia Spencer, Doug Jones and Michael Stuhlbarg. Directed by Guillermo del Toro. Opens Friday at the Varsity. 123 minutes. 14A

The Shape of Water makes the deepest dive into romance this year of any movie — literally, figuratively and on both sides of the camera.

It’s a Beauty and the Beast fantasy about a mute cleaning woman who falls in love with a humanoid water creature, set during the Cold War hysteria of 1962 when all strange things seemed possible.

What a love story it is! Almost from the moment Elisa (Sally Hawkins, magnificent) locks her enchanted brown eyes upon the beseeching blue orbs of Amphibian Man (Doug Jones), the two are swept away by unfathomable rapture, carried along by one of Alexandre Desplat’s most swoon-worthy scores.

The other madly beating heart in the picture belongs to writer/director Guillermo del Toro, whose devotion to monsters has been evident throughout his career, from the Pale Man of Pan’s Labyrinth, also played by Jones, to the sulphurous creatures of Hellboy, to the robots and sea beasties tussling in Pacific Rim.

Del Toro has at times placed monsters ahead of humans in his storytelling — Crimson Peak and Mimic come to mind — but he and co-writer Vanessa Taylor (Divergent) get the balance right this time.

There are no limits on the aquatic green visuals and flowing water, which slosh everywhere, including inside ɫɫ��’s Elgin Theatre, with our city once again standing in for an American one.

Free reign is given to production designer Paul D. Austerberry and cinematographer Dan Laustsen, who concoct underwater visions that make the entire world seem like the Emerald City of the Wizard of Oz. The effect is masterful but at times goes so far as to seem bilious.

Elisa’s eccentric artist neighbour Giles (Richard Jenkins) narrates the story in the fashion of the fairytale it is. The scene is Baltimore around the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis of ’62, but the screenplay speaks to timeless concerns about who we love and how we define our common humanity.

Relations between the U.S. and the Soviet Union have never been more tense or competitive — the Space Race is also underway. But the Yanks think they’ve found an edge in the form of an exotic merman, discovered in a South American river (shades of Creature From the Black Lagoon), who is being held in chains in an iron tank, deep within a top-secret laboratory.

Elisa and her janitorial co-worker Zelda (Octavia Spencer) are expected to keep their gaze averted and their mouths shut as they mop up water, blood and other effluents spilled around and near the tank.

The lab’s scientists, led by Dr. Robert Hoffstetler (Michael Stuhlbarg), consider Amphibian Man a biological miracle. They think that his ability to breathe underwater could benefit astronauts.

The military, however, led by five-star General Hoyt (Nick Searcy), consider the “asset” to be a potential weapon for use against the Soviets. The Soviets have ideas of their own.

Then there’s the brutal and fascistic Richard Strickland (Michael Shannon), the creature’s captor and chief antagonist, who calls Amphibian Man a godless “abomination” and tortures him with an electric cattle prod.

Elisa, however, sees only a fellow lost soul who calls out to her lonely heart.

Unable to speak, but fully able to express herself, Elisa has grown used to being written off and abused by judgmental and ignorant people. The love story turns thriller as Elisa makes a daring move prompted as much by compassion as by romance.

Already winning festival and industry kudos, including a leading 14 nominations at the Jan. 11 Critics’ Choice Awards, The Shape of Water is a likely Oscar contender and one of the best films of 2017. It’s a sensual ode to love that looks beyond surface distractions, seeking to jump right in.