Perfume: The Story of a Murder

It must be a daunting task when a filmmaker attempts to adapt a novel that has been deemed "unfilmable." Such is the challenge Tom Tykwer (the audacious "Run, Lola, Run") accepted when he decided to film "Perfume: The Story of a Murderer," the wildly popular cult novel by Patrick Suskind first printed in the US in 1986. Intrinsic to the success of telling the tale of "Perfume" is to convey a palpable sense of "smell" and its intoxicating powers. While a book may do this with pages and pages of prose, a film does not have this descriptive luxury--hence, it must attempt some sort of visual shorthand. I'm pleased to say that Tykwer was up to the task. With vivid art direction, stunning visuals, and bold editing choices--you feel, almost, as if you can smell this peculiar tale. While this may sound like dubious praise, it is actually the highest compliment.

Set in 18th century France, "Perfume" relates the tragic tale of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille (Ben Whishaw). Born and almost killed in a fish market, raised in an orphanage, put into manual (and often dangerous) service at a young age, Jean-Baptiste is a disaffected and disconnected youth. Having no social skills and lacking any kind of normal emotional processes, the one thing that differentiates Jean-Baptiste is his keen sense of smell. It seems to be the only thing that connects him to the world he lives in. A chance visit to the city brings him to a perfume shop/manufacturer. Captivated by this world that revolves around the olfactory senses, Jean-Baptiste aggressively pursues a position with the proprietor (Dustin Hoffman). After achieving some success and freedom, he becomes obsessed with procuring the perfect scent--one that he once smelled in the "essence" of a beautiful young woman. Jean-Baptiste's obsessive bent soon leads to murder (no spoiler here, it is the title) as he seeks to extract this intoxicating smell from his victims. It's as if creating this one perfect scent will somehow humanize him--but to attempt it, he becomes even more monstrous.

In the opening minutes of "Perfume," I was absolutely blown away. The visual impact of the early scenes is astonishing and unique. The tale, however, does settle down into a more routine and more familiar pattern. But while it doesn't maintain the frenetic and captivating pace, it is never less than intriguing and certainly beautiful to view. Technically, the film is awesome. I've already mentioned art direction and editing, but scoring, cinematography, and costuming are all top notch. Jean-Baptiste, who is really in every scene, can be a challenging central character--Whishaw plays him fairly vacantly. It is a one note performance, but largely because that's what the story calls for--a certain emotional flatness. Therefore, I thought it was effective--others might find it somewhat empty.

I suspect many will absolutely loathe "Perfume," however, for I have yet to speak about the ending. The ending is absolutely outrageous, and I suspect that it will polarize audiences into "love it/hate it" camps. It's so over-the-top, so unlike anything you might foresee, and so unlike anything you've ever witnessed in a film before. Yet, for me, these excesses worked and fit well with the tone of this lurid little tale. Love it or hate it, it's a bold choice--and one you're not likely to forget. So I am recommending "Perfume" for those that like something different--this is not standard Hollywood fare, and I mean that in a good way. KGHarris, 02/07.

How exactly do you make a movie about smells? After all, a movie is all about sight and sound. Touch, taste and smell rarely come into it.

But acclaimed German director Tom Tykwer manages to make us smell things, in his most disturbing movie to date, "Perfume: The Story of a Murderer." This time around, the talented Tykwer abandons his usual lovers-against-the-world stories for a lushly-filmed, darkly comic story of olfactory obsession. Yes, that is what I said.

Jean-Baptiste Grenouillle (Ben Whishaw) is a man with a brilliant sense of smell, and zero body odor. He was born in a putrid fishmarket, raised in an orphanage, and later escapes from a tannery where he was working. He's enraptured by the many thrilling smells in the city -- he even kills a young girl, so that he can smell her lovely scent.

In his search for the perfect scent, Jean-Baptiste gets a job with a once-famed perfume-maker (Dustin Hoffman). But after learning that not everything has a scent, he begins killing women to try to distill their scents into the ultimate perfume -- with beautiful redhead Laura (Rachel Hurd-Wood) as the "thirteenth scent." But his ultimate scent has an even more sinister side, as his scents begin to affect the population in unusual ways.

"Perfume" is Tykwer's most unique movie to date, and the one that definitely identifies him as a cinematic master. There are lots of music that are evocative, sensual, colourfully beautiful, or unspeakably creepy, but not many manage to be all of them. "Perfume: The Story of a Murderer" is all of those, and more.

Obviously a movie doesn't smell like anything, except maybe stale popcorn. So Tykwer uses sight for smell -- rotted fish, maggots, moldy walls from the late 1700s to show Jean-Baptiste's miserable origins. And he uses sparkling colour and windblown trees for nicer scents. Colour takes the place of scent itself -- bright red Lola hair on multiple girls, flowers that seem to pop out of the screen, fresh leaves, brilliant fruits, even brightly coloured food. It gives the visuals a fairy-tale vibrancy.

In fact, the scripting almost comes second to the exquisite cinematography. Yet Tykwer is able to bring across the powerful symbolism that brings the movie to life -- the smells are symbolic of love itself, which the scentless and amoral Jean-Baptiste does not have. He can only try to take it from others, with a finale that is the very image of poetic justice.

Jean-Baptiste himself is one of those love/hate characters, and Whishaw does an excellent job with his sort of half-crazy, intent stare. And there are some great supporting performances by Alan Rickman as Antoine Richis (Laura's dad) and Hoffman as the eccentric old perfume-maker -- he adds a welcome note of comedy.

A movie is dependent on sight, but Tom Tykwer creates a movie that you can almost smell. "Perfume: The Story of a Murderer" is darkly comic, bizarrely beautiful movie, and definitely worth seeing.

› Go to Amazon.com to see both reviews  4.5 out of 5 stars