The Eclectic Choice: Perfume

Perfume: The Story Of A Murderer (2006)

dir. Tom Tykwer

Director Tom Tykwer broke through in America with the wild Run Lola Run (1998). Since then he remained his own man and made such diverse fair as The Princes And The Warrior (2000), Heaven (2002) and the Clive Owen thriller The International (2009). No one could predict one project leading to another and no one could predict how successful he'd be in adapting the book, Perfume: The Story Of A Murderer.

This was a novel that was claimed by many to be unfilmable. Even Stanley Kubrick said it couldn't be done! But Tykwer proved everyone wrong by creating a thrilling, humorous and scent filled movie that doesn't even require smell-o-vision to attack your olfactory lobe. Tykwer found visual and musical patterns that help create a sense of smell and a main character with motives so unique it's hard to tell if you are for him or against him.

Ben Wishaw turns in a marvelous performance as Grenouille. He moves from situation to situation encountering scent after scent until he becomes so obsessed with creating the most incredible perfume, that he resorts to a series of killings. The outcome if this adventure could never be guessed and the ending is pretty damned divisive. It's so out there I still remember saying, "What the fuck?" out loud in the theater.

Some of the acting is uneven and there are small moments with pacing problems, but it is an overall satisfying ride and very original. Derivative is a word that does not exist in this movie.

Buy it now, but don't expect this to smell pretty to everyone.