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Ben Whishaw in Dreamworks' Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
© Dreamworks

Mania Grade: B
Maniac Grade: A+
Reviewed Format: Theatrical Release
Rated: R
Stars: Ben Whishaw, Dustin Hoffman, Alan Rickman, Rachel Hurd-Wood
Writers: Andrew Birkin & Bernd Eichinger & Tom Tykwer, based on the novel by Patrick Suskind
Director: Tom Tykwer
Distributor: DreamWorks/Paramount Pictures

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"Perfume: The Story of a Murderer"

There’s an original motive for the killings by the protagonist in Perfume: The Story of a Murderer – rather than conventional lust or greed or sadism, Jean-Baptiste Grenouille (Ben Whishaw) does in beautiful young women in the service of his ultimate goal: the preservation of their scent to create the world’s most intoxicating perfume. Directed by Tom Tykwer, who adapted the screenplay with Andrew Birkin & Bernd Echinger from Patrick Suskind’s novel, Perfume has a premise of magical realism (a perfume so potent it can influence the actions of others) and the look and tone of a folktale, with chiaroscuro lighting and sprightly narration by John Hurt. Unfortunately, it lacks heart, so that we can neither identify with Jean-Baptiste’s quest for perfection nor his lovely but blankly depicted victims.  

To be sure, Jean-Baptiste commands our sympathy for a time. Born in 18^th-century France to an impoverished mother who abandons him at birth (and hangs for this action), reared at an orphanage where the other children try to kill him and sold into slavery at a tannery, Jean-Baptiste has an upbringing that would make anyone antisocial. His one solace is his uncanny sense of smell – he can identify anything in the vicinity, no matter how minute, and determine the exact contents and their amounts of any perfume after taking a mere whiff. Jean-Baptiste’s first encounter with a young woman ends in him accidentally killing her while trying to take in her scent. Then Jean-Baptiste becomes apprentice to an Italian perfume-maker (Dustin Hoffman) operating in Paris. Jean-Baptiste supplies the formulas, while his boss gets all the income and glory. Jean-Baptiste doesn’t care – he’s only interested in preserving the scent of a woman. To this end, Jean-Baptiste eventually comes up with a method that works – but it involves killing women. In his single-minded pursuit of getting together enough individual scents to blend into the perfect perfume, Jean-Baptiste has absolutely no moral qualms about what he’s doing – and as no one can figure out what sort of gratification the serial killer is getting from his actions (notably, the victims are not sexually violated), both his reasons and his identity are a mystery to the authorities. A nobleman (Alan Rickman) with a beautiful daughter (Rachel Hurd-Wood) tries to protect her and get to the bottom of things. 

Because the premise is fairly novel and because director Tykwer, cinematographer Frank Griebe and production designer Uli Hanisch create such a sumptuous look, Perfume is consistently watchable and intellectually interesting, though increasingly arguable. Because Jean-Baptiste’s needs are so insular and he never attempts to make recognizable human contact (yes, his initial intentions toward the first woman he meets are innocent, but offer nothing), there’s only so far our sympathy for him goes. We might argue at a trial that he has diminished capacity due to enforced lack of normal human contact, but we start to feel like we’re spending an awfully long time with him after awhile. As Tykwer and Co. seem to have little feeling for Jean-Baptiste’s victims – they’ve got practically no personality – we get the feeling we’re meant to see them as symbols rather than as people, which in turn takes away from the tale’s tragic aspect. There’s an amazing penultimate sequence where Tykwer as director creates a sexual vista that’s positively painterly, but the finale feels anticlimactic after this, both visually and thematically.