"Perfume: The Story of a Murderer" - 1.13.07
For Access Brighton. (Unedited version.)

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer follows Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, an orphan in 18th century France, whose uncanny sense of smell and strange view of the world leads him on a obsessive quest to capture and preserve scent. His passion and talent, however, alienate him even as they define him, and his endeavor soon takes on a deadly zeal.

Based off the supposedly "unfilmable" novel by Peter Suskin, this turned out to be a most remarkable movie. It remains true to the book (yet never slavishly so), and manages to catch its unique blend of chilling suspense and metaphysical curiosity. Newcomer Ben Whishaw is perfect as Grenouille, taking on the complicated character with all his peculiar awkwardness and understated yet unnerving intensity.

The primary focus is scent, fleeting and intangible, so the filmmakers had an interesting challenge of figuring out how to produce that, as well as the heady mix of emotional and psychological textures that make the story what is is. So it was very satisfying to see how they used the usual cinematic tools of audio and vision to create a beautiful, unsettling, and very evocative experience of another physical sense altogether.

Yet even more than elusive and precarious than insubstantial scent is the mental landscape of the story; but once again, the extravagant imagery and precise sound design (both effects and orchestral score) made it a powerful experience. But for all its merits, "Perfume" is still a very unusual movie and many people may not like it. It looks at obsession and desire that could be madness, yet makes no judgments even of the most heinous acts. It addresses very human notions of love and identity, yet does so with an almost wholly inhuman protagonist. The tone is objective, almost clinical, presenting glories and horrors equally - though this is not to say the film is cold or boring; far from it. Rather, you are left to make of it what you will, while the undercurrent of bleak, black humor makes you wonder if it's all some kind of sly joke, mocking as much as it illuminates.