GenQ - For the not so straight individual

Perfume

Now On DVD

Universal Home Entertainment


This sensual and stylish film takes place in 18th century France. Jean-Baptist Grenouille has been born with an extraordinary gift. He has a super human sense of smell. With this gift he sets out to create the perfect perfume by murdering his victims.

Being able to know what another person has done or eaten hours before is the premise for this film. Jean-Baptist is attracted to nice things. This includes smells people and most of all women. Driven to the extreme with his gift, the only way he can live with what he has is by becoming a killer. This is to make his dream a reality by trying to create a special perfume.

The audience will not see him as a cold hearted killer but a person trying to accept and embrace what he has. The violence and nudity in this film is done tastefully and will not offend its audience at all. The casting is a little off with Dustin Hoffman in a unique role as a perfume specialist who coaches JB. Hoffman was brilliant in this role and it is easy to see why.

Perfume successfully creates a period thriller without showing all blood and gore that we expect. The ending was very sensual and provocative. This was filmed in a way as not to be pornographic but a tasteful and respectful scene to the original novel.

Breakout actor Ben Wishaw is certainly one to watch out for. I really enjoyed watching him on screen as he had very strong screen presence. Wishaw played this role very well for a novice actor. Im very much interested to see what he does next. Overall a good film tastefully done.

Marcus Richa