Perfume: Story of a Murderer

2006 stinkfest

Rating: 11/20

Plot: Jean-Baptiste Grenouille is born with exceptional olfactory powers under a table in a fish market in Paris. When his mother is hanged, he's sent to an orphanage and eventually winds up being sold and working for a tanner and then a perfume maker with a really large nose (played by Dustin Hoffmann's nose). His gift enables him to make the world's greatest perfume, but he wants to continue to experiment, extracting the scents of deceased cats and abandoned iron. He sets off for Grasse to discover the perfect, and more than slightly grisly, ingredients to concoct a smell that could impress the French and put his name on the map.

Lots of this was beautifully ugly, but unfortunately, this whole thing just seemed like a seemingly endless joke with two punchlines, neither which actually worked. I didn't like the style much. Admittedly, I don't care for these period pictures regardless, but Tykwer's visual flare gets downright obscene. As in Run Lola Run (a movie that I seem alone in actively hating), it's a case of style over substance, more specifically style hovering over substance with gigantic gloved hands squeezing the life from its victim. Good costumes, great imagery, a somewhat intriguing story, and wonderful dusty props that lend this some authenticity tangle with oppressive narration and soundtrack, a flatulent bumbling script, unrealized characters, and far too much trickery. Definitely moments (classy nudity, a fun little violent montage) but most the movie failed in making me feel anything at all.

Here I am, probably able to smell myself: