Review of Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006) by William C — 16 May 2015

Grade: 6.5/10.

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer is a kind of crime and weirdly fantasy movie drama that tells us all about the scent of humans and how sinister it can get. Now it is a good story in my opinion and although Is a bit shaky all the way through here and there, patchy if you will, It does again in my opinion come out OK and a kind of movie where you feel satisfied but quite possibly let down by what it could have been.

Now the whole piece is well acted, and yet certain scenes are so utterly random and not really useful for the plot, the actors suffer and our main Character Jean-Baptiste Grenouille portrayed by Ben Whishaw makes the biggest loss from this. Whishaw is good enough though and although looking inexperienced, still believable and almost animal like which I guess is what the original book wanted for him. Alan Rickman and Dustin Hoffman are among the veteran actors involved and although fine, still used poorly in casting and in direction.

Now it is written OK to say it is adapted and the script does bring a little life to the story but in truth the words are not one of the highlights, even though the people behind this I feel wanted it to be. The same has to be said of the directing from Tom Tykwer who also partly writes this, it is pretty alright stuff but the way in which he coordinates this can make it seem too random and quickly the film can turn into ugliness or make an actor seem lost and like he just came for the day.

Now one major fine point is the way this movie looks, now of course 18th century Paris was far from nice to be in, I just found the sets remarkable and really beautiful. I think also the way in which the perfumes are brewed and thought up by our main characters makes this fine again, even though we cannot smell, it almost gives us a near chance in a way to be able to. The setting is also fantastic in Spain, and really shows off the fine architecture and landscape too.

Now off the way this looks and onto the way it makes you feel. This is the kind of film where I believe people will be mixed, and not in a way where some hate it and some find it kind of OK, but I feel people will love this and find it excellent, yet some just another bad movie. I think the reason behind that is the topsy-turvy nature of the movie that makes it hard to connect with at times yet draws you in at others so I think some will get annoyed. This is also a movie I strongly recommend reading reviews for it to get a good sense if you will like it or not, and I mean the critics will tell you straight.

Overall I felt it to be alright and OK as I have said and the reason I gave it the grade I did is because it is not near being average, in fact I found it near to pretty good. The thing I will say though is that I stress that it isn't a movie all will like, some will be won over by the look and feel, and some will hate that and all the dark twisted kind of things that happen here and the film really doesn't connect you well with our main man Jean-Baptiste. All in all though it is definitely worth a little peak, could have been better to see at the cinema but it does just as well on a TV etc, the kind of movie that can be enjoyed but not too much.