This is an art movie with an ending that will puzzle many. As of this writing (January 5), this movie has not yet been seen by many Americans. It has however, based largely on its European release, garnered a user rating of 7.4 already; a quite good rating. It was undoubtedly the right decision to have it open in Europe first. Assuming that Americans probably won't be able to appreciate it as much as us Old Worlders, the user rating will probably go down once a few thousand Americans have rated it here. But let me try to prevent that from happening by explaining what the movie is about.

The ending is really what makes the movie (or breaks it, for those who don't see the beauty of it). It becomes clear then that what Grenouille was trying to do was create a physical distillate of love. Not sex. Not beauty. Love. And he did it. He created the perfect feeling of love, both emotional and physical; a love encompassing perfect eroticism (not just emotionless sex). And in the end, he did what lovers do: he joined with other people. Yes, they absorbed him entirely, meaning that he became part of them, just as a person in love wishes to become part of his or her lover. But HE represented the very *concept* of love, and his physical absorption by the common people represents their ultimate adoption and understanding of that concept.

Of course, this is an art movie and everything in it is symbolical. It amounts to a description of what love is and how it works. The movie is saying that love is something real which *can* be defined and understood, and the ultimate consequence of such understanding is that people join with each other (emotionally and sexually). Even if they are strangers. Because everybody is capable of feeling love, and one day maybe everybody will.

It's a beautiful movie. When I left the theater I hadn't pieced everything together yet, and thought I'd rate it an 8 out of 10. But having slept on it, I realized it was a perfect movie. Hence, I must give it a 10 out of 10.

The movie opens with Jean-Baptiste Grenouille (Ben Whishaw) being sentenced to a gruesome punishment during the 18th century cheered on lustily by the crowd. He was born in the putrid 1738 Paris fish market, found in the pile of fish guts, and his mother sent to the gallows. He's put in the overcrowded orphanage where the other kids immediately try to kill him. He unnerves the other kids with his strange superior ability to smell. He is sold to the tannery at the age of 13. When he grows older, he is entranced by the smells of the city and the smell of the Plum Girl. He accidentally kills her leaving him with a desire to preserve the intoxicating scent of the girl. While delivering leather, he impresses perfumer Giuseppe Baldini (Dustin Hoffman) who is now too old and out of touch. So much so that Baldini purchases the young man. Grenouille is obsessed with a way to replicate. Baldini tells him of the mysterious art of enfleurage found in Grasse. While walking on a country road, he is overtaken by the smell of Laura (Rachel Hurd-Wood). Her father is Antoine Richis (Alan Rickman).

This would be a great movie for smell-o-vision. The style is doing the next best thing. It is grungy, dark and ugly. The ugliness pushes the senses of the audience. Ben Whishaw is wonderfully creepy. He does a scary stone-faced intensity. His character is isolated. He's obsessed. This is the essence of the movie. It's about his obsession and his amoral pursuit of it. He brings no judgment to his life other than to satisfying the obsession. I would say the movie has a sexual sense if not for the fact that it is done in such a gruesome manner. This is a movie unlike most others. This movie is deliciously horrible.

While I truly disliked this film, I can't give it a score of 1 simply because the music was so lovely and so much of the production was well done--such as the narration and cinematography (when, at least, it isn't focused on close ups of vomiting and filth). In other words, while I found the story itself utterly repellent, the people who made this film obviously were talented and crafted an amazing tale out of an incredibly nihilistic and sick premise. And, because there were so many revolting aspects to the film, I certainly could not recommend it.

This film has already been reviewed by a bazillion people, so reprising the story isn't necessary--for that, read some of the other reviews. Instead, I want to talk about what I hated about this tale. I have a bit of a bias and I should point this out before I continue. I don't like films about serial killers or murder, so the fact that I disliked this film so much isn't a huge surprise. What was a surprise to me is that one of my co-workers actually thought I'd like this film and suggested I watch it. If I'd known what it was about, I am sure I wouldn't have even bothered. Much of this is because a long time ago, I made my living attempting to do therapy with murderers and rapists. It was all probably just a waste of time and since then I just don't want to hear about this sort of crap--I've seen and heard enough and don't find it interesting--just repellent. For me, life is just too short to immerse myself in evil. Been there, done that.

The bottom line is that PERFUME is a very dehumanizing a movie. People are murdered for our entertainment. While the killings are not super-graphic, there is a gentle fairy tale quality about this that seems to excuse or at least trivialize this horror. Had anyone watched this movie who has lost family members to murder, I wonder just how "entertaining" this all would have been?! Tons of nudity (none of which is sexy--much of which seems sick and sad), scenes of people vomiting (in closeup), extreme violence, abuse of corpses--this movie seems to have it all. Frankly, had I LIKED this film, I would have worried. Instead, it was a chore to finish and I won't recommend it to anyone.