By Andrew Benjamin
Beyond the film itself, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer boasts both an extensive back-story and, as of 2006, the highest price tag ever for a German film. Numerous high profile directors have been attached to direct this adaptation, including the late Stanley Kubrick, who called the novel off which it is based unfilmable. Usually, these kind of problems signify that a film is already in deep trouble and while Perfume is able to avoid this fate in some areas, it succumbs to it in others.
The film takes place in 18th century France, where a Jean-Baptiste, a young Parisian is born with an abnormally keen sense of smell. When he gets his first whiff of perfume, he becomes enamored by the new aroma. With the help of an Italian perfume maker (Dustin Hoffman), he learns how to make perfume, but does not know how to keep the scent from wearing off. When he moves to a new town, the young boy becomes enamored by a teenage aristocrat Laura Richis (Rachael Hurd-Wood). His desire overpowers him and he becomes a murderer of young girls in the hopes of making a perfume whose scent will never disappear.
It’s only fair to point out what works in the movie. The acting in Perfume is great. Ben Whishaw gives a very good performance as the troubled Jean-Baptiste. While his dialogue is minimal, he has great physical emotion that presents a disturbed and obsessed human being. Dustin Hoffman, good as always, helps provide some occasional snickers in this otherwise dark movie. Though, his “Italian accent” comes to sound more like Bela Lugosi’s portrayal Dracula. Alan Rickman as Richis’ father is also very good. He brings a caring, but tough sensibility to his role.
Unfortunately, the film’s flaws are very evident and massive. The film has a run time of over 2 hours. It feels much longer than that. In general, some scenes, particularly parts in the middle, felt too long and unnecessary. Some could have been trimmed down or shortened in some way. What makes this such a surprising flaw is that the director, Tom Tykwer, is the same man who made the ultra fast-paced Run Lola Run. The most annoying detractor from this film is the narration. Narration is good. It can help give some back story to the plot, characters, and other necessities that may not obvious to an audience member. But the keyword is some, not all. This narration is too descriptive specifically with the motivations of Jean-Baptiste. In a nutshell, the narrator says “Jean-Baptiste did this because… Jean-Baptiste did that because” and so on and so on. It’s not necessary to explain every detail.
The sad fact is, Perfume could’ve been a much better film. It has great actors and an intriguing story, but the slow pace and excessive narration make the film not recommendable. Perhaps Kubrick’s hypothesis about the successful adaptation of this film is correct.
GRADE: C-
