Scent is a strange thing, the oddest of the senses. When you think about it the other senses are the ones that get the most praise. Sight has paintings and art, a treat for the eyes. Hearing allows music to delight the senses. Taste has food that causes the body to tremble. With touch, sex and drugs fill the senses. Scent is underrated. Most the time scent is treated with something bad, or will soon be better with taste. Perfumists are the artists of their field. They create a smell so overwhelming it over powers the senses. It takes place in three steps. The first is the initial that last for a few minutes or so. The second remains for the rest of the day, how you judge the area or person your around that carried that smell. The final is the lingering smell you feel and use to remind you of what you loved earlier. I didn't give perfume much thought before this movie, but I can say now I appreciate what they do. Not something I'd use but I may identify from now on. The film talks about a scent so powerful it makes you feel like your in paradise. This movie deals with this and so much more.
We are introduced to a man sitting in a dark cell. Only his eyes are visible, they are sending a powerful message about the rest of the man. He is dragged from this place in chains and thrown out on a balcony. Thousands are gathered below and a man reads off that the prisoner is guilty and the punishment. He will be given horrible punishment as the crowds screams for his pain. Their bloodlust has consumed them. A narrator intervenes and tells us this man before the crowd is somebody special and only wanted to make something out of himself in this world.
The man is Jean-Baptiste Grenouille (A fantastic breakthrough by Ben Whishaw) and he is special. His mother gives birth to him and throws him in the gutter. The foul odor causes him to cry and to be found. If he was keep and brought to a field of flowers at birth would the story be different? Jean-Baptiste is brought to an orphanage where some children try to kill the baby with a pillow. This is a DARK movie. I'm glad it was because it was so much better for it, there are scenes I don't want to imagine without this dark side. Jean-Baptiste has a special gift he realizes as he grows up in poverty. He can smell anything (glass, rocks, a person breathing etc..) and later he has no smell of his own. There is a myth that the devil has no smell. There are no direct references to this but if you want to see this side it's definitely there.
Jean-Baptiste visits upper-class Paris one day while working for a tanner and it changes his life. He recognizes new smells. The narrator says he has yet to recognize a good smell from a bad one, he just smells. There is Shakespearian philosophy in this. Shakespeare said "There is nothing good nor bad; but thinking makes it so". Jean-Baptiste does not understand his future actions because he does not know good from bad, he doesn't let thought interfere with his smell (not that he is dumb). He picks up the scent of a woman, but there is something special about her. She is what a poem is to a poet, a painting to a artist, and a song is to a musician. It is something special, the most beautiful thing in the world. He becomes obsessed and follows this angel. He surprises her and accidentally suffocates her to keep her from screaming. She dies and Jean-Baptiste continues to smell her. The scent changes though, she is now a corpse, not person with a heartbeat. He can't keep the smell not take what the smell was before with him. He sets out to preserve the smell for himself.
He begins to work for Giuseppe (Dustin Hoffman), a famous perfumer. Jean-Baptiste already knows more about making perfume that Giuseppe has learned in decades. Jean-Baptiste creates a new perfume in a brilliant scene. Giuseppe smells it and his head tilts back, eyes flutter close and a sigh escapes his lips. he transported to a garden where a women kisses him and says "I love you". A scent so powerful it makes you feel your in heaven is a enticing thought. Jean-Baptiste learns he cannot preserve the smell with Giuseppe's methods and the man sends the boy to the city of Grasse to learn (in exchange for 100 perfumes that Jean-Baptiste lists off with ease). He sees another beautiful woman on his way to town that is much like the one he saw in Paris. She is Laura (the very pretty Rachel Hurd-Wood) the daughter of a the powerful merchant/count Antoine Richis (Alan Rickman). Jean-Baptiste learns new methods and begins to use this in sinister ways. He goes around killing women so he can preserve the smell fast to make his masterpiece perfume. A serial killer with a higher motive is born onto the city and will terrify the people.
Antoine tries to find this killer but to no avail, the town is in such a panic no one will listen. There is no hero in the story. The plot revolves around Jean-Baptiste but he is far from a hero. We are interested in his actions but never support him. Antoine loves his daughter but is harsh with her, he is reasonable but wants to stop the killer. If he wins the plot ends. We can't root for him either. Jean-Baptiste will continue to kill until his masterpiece is complete.
He is captured when he completes the perfume and will be executed publicly. Thousands have gathered including Antoine, high council, and a bishop. What follows is one of the greatest film scenes I've ever scene (top 10 maybe). Jean-Baptiste manages to use a little of the perfume's scent to intoxicate the guards to get a fancy suit and a carriage to event. He steps out and the blood cries stop to looks of confusion. There is an aura about him now that excites the people. He steps up the stage and the executioner bows before him screaming that this man is innocent. Jean-Baptiste takes out the perfume, puts some on a handkerchief and waves it toward the crowd. They are overpowered and the scent becomes them. Their minds now in paradise. The bishop is in shock, falls to his knees and declares "This is no man, He is an Angel!" The crowd is enthralled and chant their love. Jean-Baptiste lets a the handkerchief fly over the crowd and something tremendous happens. They all (but Jean-Baptiste) have an orgy. It's not filthy looking but shows the joy the people feel. It's so well done I felt like I smelt the perfume. Jean-Baptiste sees the woman in Paris and imagines making love to her. He begins to cry So rarely do you see a film that shows what woman can do to a man. Create something of magic to their minds and senses.
"Perfume: Story Of A Murder" does it all right. The film looks tremendous and is acted to perfection. There is music to swell your senses. It creates very stimulating thoughts and gets the audience involved. I considered giving it a 10/10 but backed out at the last second, but it's still phenomenal. This is a winner in the darkest of ways, but in the end a masterpiece.
9.5/10
Recommendation: The 2:30 hours flew by, more so here than almost any other movie. It's so entertaining I can't see anyone not liking it if not at least interested
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