Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

June 20, 2007

2006 brought to the giant screen many great films such as the quirky Little Miss Sunshine, the gothic Pan's Labyrinth and Oscar favorites Babel and Scorsese's The Departed which eventually won the best picture award. There are more worth mentioning but I think if there is one film that deserves similar accolades despite mixed reviews it got, it is Tom Tykwer's Perfume: The Story of a Murderer.

Based on a novel of the same title by Patrick Suskind, Perfume tells the story of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille played convincingly by newcomer Ben Whishaw. Grenouille is an orphan in 18th century Paris born with the most acute sense of smell. His extraordinary sniffing talent turns him into a serial killer as he pursues his obsession of creating the perfect scent and preserving it. Grenouille could effortlessly identify the ingredients and their quantities just by smelling a whiff of the perfume. He sought out master perfumier Sinore Baldini played awfully by Dustin Hoffman. Baldini was impressed by Grenouille's nostrils that he took the amoral antihero under his wing. There in Baldini's laboratory, Grenouille wasted no time trying to perfect the technique of preserving scents. His victims include a beautiful plum seller and a cat. Yes, a cat. He placed the dead cat in a humongous distillation apparatus hoping that the apparatus would squeeze out every scent (and stench) of that poor cat - the smell that makes a cat a cat. Of course, it did not work. Realizing that Baldini had nothing more to teach him, the apprentice bid his master good bye and went on with his psychopathic activities. 12 beautiful but dead bodies later in a village stricken with fear, Grenouille just lacks one more ingredient for his perfect perfume: Laura (Rachel Hurd-Wood), daughter of the rich merchant Richis (Alan Rickman).

While watching the film, I could not help but be awed by Tywker's genius to bring to screen the sights and the scents and stench of 18th century Paris. It is as if I am watching the film not just with my eyes and ears but with my nose as well. Long after I have seen it, I could still smell the film - the putrid and the amorous trapped in my nostrils. Such is the power of Tywker and his film.

The pacing feels like a drag sometimes but the visuals and the music will pull you back in. Running time: 147 minutes.