On Sunday afternoon Marcia and I watched the movie “Perfume”, based on the novel of the same name by Patrick Süskind, and starring Ben Whishaw, Dustin Hoffman, and Alan Rickman.
From Amazon.Com, here is a synopsis of the movie plot:
Based on Patrick Suskind’s novel about a serial killer who hunts victims with his superhuman sense of smell, “Perfume: Story of a Murderer” is a florid, grisly portrayal of this historical drama set in 18th century France. Jean-Baptiste Grunuis (Whishaw) is born under his mother’s table at the fish market, onto a pile of muddy fish guts, establishing from the beginning his repulsion for putrid scents. A childhood of neglect and, later, a job at a tannery, encourage Jean-Baptiste to develop his olfactory sense rather than his verbal skills, so that an opportunity to prove his worth to Parisian perfumist, Giuseppe Baldini (Hoffman), results in his immediate hire into a promising new career. His successes in perfume mixing are negated by a blinding obsession for capturing the sublime beauty of human soul, which in his twisted logic requires the killing of young women to reduce their body fats to essential oils for the ultimate, cannibalized eau de parfum. An omniscient narrator (John Hurt) tells the story with much sympathy for Jean-Baptiste’s perverted psychology, making it, often, too obvious that his need for love justifies his murderous desire to capture misguided sexual attractions in a vile.
Now, the reason I had talked Marcia into renting this was because I heard the book was so very good. I had thought about getting a copy and reading it, but dropped it off the list. And possibly the one big thing about the book that people liked was getting into the head of a murderer, and even sympathizing with him and his quest. However, the movie didn’t give you that feeling. At first it did, given the nature of the first death/murder. But it didn’t last. You started to see more of the sick mind, not the fragile heart that was supposed to be brought forth. The viewer only saw the fragileness of his heart at the very end.
At times too things were overdone and overdramatic. It took a while to get the story going, as the narration was the only thing fueling the story for the first 20 minutes of the movie. But it soon settled it to be a good movie, though missing points that it was supposed to make for both Marcia and myself.
Still an interesting film. We were let down by some aspects, but many could find a lot to intrigue them within.
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