Review of Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006) by Jeffs. — 14 Jan 2007

Perfume is so awful I'm actually compelled to write about how terrible this movie is 2 weeks after seeing it. First off, whereas Tom Tykwer had a few strong strokes of originality in Run Lola Run, he proves in this film that he is without a doubt a masterful hack.

The entire adpatation is sophmoric, employing an idiotic narrator voiceover that redefines the definition of cliche. In fact there are so many problems in this movie such as hystrionic acting, horrible dialects, and a narrative structure so misguided, you sit in the audience and after an hour wonder if this is all a big joke.

And whereas you typically don't isolate one person as having the responsibilty for a movie going sour - in this particualr film, there is no other individual responsible for this movie tanking than Tom Tykwer.

With material that requires clever dramatic and visual structure, and a unique sense of style, all we get is cliche, bread-and-butter drab, Tom, I gotta hand it to you, your directing is so awful in this, so stuffy, self-serious, and suffering from delusional egomania, that you've made "American Pie" look like "The Godfather" in comparison.

I know this sounds harsh, but at least "American Pie" knew its place as a movie. In keeping with your tradition of cliches, all I have to say is "Your film stinks.