Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

Jean-Baptiste Grenouille (Ben Whishaw), last name pronounciation unclear, prepares for his final moments in the new film Perfume: The Story of a Murderer. He is tipping over his head the most heavenly scent ever created by the murders of the film's subtitle.

One of those novels that Dymocks would alarmingly file under 'literary fiction', Perfume was always going to be an interesting prospect on screen, given its arch style and emphasis on the world of smell. The opening of Tom Tykwer's film however almost convinces an audience that he has succeeded - after the dulcet tones of John Hurt introducing Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, we see his birth in a crowded market in Paris, amongst the filth and decrepitude of a fishmonger's stall. The narration is the guiding force in this early section of the film (it almost disappears in the middle section) as we see Grenouille's mother executed after abandoning him, and then his progress from a nasty orphanage to a tannery, all the while absorbing the world of scent around him. He doesn't communicate properly, yet his heightened sense of smell allows him much more insight into what is going on around him than those less attentive. There is a certain humour to all of these scenes, albeit a very black one, especially in the succession of deaths of those who abandon Grenouille. The humour is also amplified by the introduction of the master performer Baldini (Dustin Hoffman) who Grenouille returns to fortune with a series of wonderful perfumes (one realised particularly inventively). The main action of the film takes place in Grasse, where Grenouille finds a few method to preserve the scene of absolutely anything. It is no surprise given the subtitle of the film that he goes on to murder the young women of that town to create the perfect perfume, lusting in particular after the daughter (Rachel Hurd-Wood) of local aristocrat Richis (Alan Rickman) who spearheads the hunt for the murderer.

It is a fantastically visual film, as you would expect from the director of Run Lola Run and Heaven, but like the latter film, it suffers or a very languid pace and some overly indulgent shots, especially as the thriller element drags on. One of the final scenes in a seaside guesthouse is particularly guilty of this, with an overused fade-to-white effect and a portentuous score (penned by Tykwer himself). The acting too is questionable: Hoffman and Rickman are reliable as ever, but unfortunately Ben Whishaw and Rachel Hurd-Wood turn in one note performances which threaten to sink the film - the former sporting the most inappropriate English accent caught on screen since Scarlett Johanssen in The Prestige. The accents are a major flaw; yes the film is set in France, but most of the cast have English accents (including Rickman's Professor Snape-clone) except for Hoffman who has an indecipherable collection of American and European vocabulary and accents. Some critics have lauded the adaptation as a faithful recreation of the novel, and to an extent it is, but it suffers from a major problem in that the ending is faintly ridiculous. It is over-long, and while the very final scene boasts a certain power, the Grasse scene that precedes it - complete with overblown slow motion, pompous score and drawn-out camerawork - undercuts much of the excellent work which precedes it and lends the entire film a tinge of the ridiculous. Disappointing in a film that worked so hard on creating a distinctive mood in its first act only to see it slowly fall apart in the long second.

Which is not to say that it is not a film worth seeing nonetheless, mainly for some lavish production in the opening and a genuine attempt to bring the transient world of smell to the cinema. It is truly unfortunate that most of the film's credibility disappears along with its sense of humour after a Parisian bridge collapse, and ultimately the film feels like a wasted opportunity to create something more that Tykwer managed to deliver - which suggests that, after Heaven, an unfortunate pattern is developing.

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