Movie Review for Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

Summary: Based on the bestselling novel by Patrick Süskind, "Perfume" is a story of murder and obsession set in 18th-century France. Jean-Baptiste Grenouille has a unique talent for discerning the scents and smells that swirl around him, which he uses to create the world's finest perfumes. Strangely lacking any scent of his own, he becomes obsessed with capturing the irresistible but elusive aroma of young womanhood. As Grenouille's obsession turns deadly, twelve young girls are found murdered. Panic breaks out as people rush to protect their daughters, while an unrepentant and unrelenting Grenouille still lacks the final ingredient to complete his quest.

                         Reviews of Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
By Eleanor Ringel Gillespie of Atlanta Journal-Constitution (7/0)
            Has a lot going for it, but in the end has all the depth of a scratch-and-sniff card.

By Eleanor Ringel Gillespie of Atlanta Journal-Constitution (7/0)
            Jack the Ripper meets Scent of a Woman in Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, an example of why cer...

By Jamie Russell of BBC (7/0)
            Scratch 'n' sniff cinema.

By Ty Burr of Boston Globe (7/0)
            ...sensory overload.

By Roger Ebert of Chicago Sun-Times (7/0)
            It took imagination to tell it, courage to film it, thought to act it, and from the audience it r...

By Jules Brenner of Cinema Signals (7/0)
            A whole new take on the concept, The Scent of a Woman. But, really, all this perfumer-extraordin...

                         Reviews of Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
By Kim Voynar of Cinematical (7/0)
            I fully expect a lot of folks to dismiss this film as violent and misogynistic, and looking at it...

By Alex Ramirez of Cinenganos (7/0)
            Una tremenda experiencia sensorial, una cinta que dejará maravillados a los fans del libro, y a ...

By Mark Palermo of Coast (Halifax, Nova Scotia) (7/0)
            Plenty of high profile movies are about the tormented lives of artists. Perfume: The Story of a M...

By Mark Palermo of Coast (Halifax, Nova Scotia) (7/0)
            Plenty of high profile movies are about the tormented lives of artists. Perfume: The Story of a M...

By Jeffrey M. Anderson of Combustible Celluloid (7/0)
            Perfume has great moments of beauty and of audacity.

By George Wu of culturevulture.net (7/0)
            Agree or disagree, this is a work so bold and provocative and distinctive that it demands to be s...

                         Reviews of Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
By Boo Allen of Denton Record Chronicle (TX) (7/0)
            Another compelling work from Tykwer, however unpleasant.

By Erik Childress of eFilmCritic.com (7/0)
            You could be stuffing quantities of chocolate, oysters and arugula while watching the playmate of...

By Eric Lurio of Entertainment Insiders (7/0)
             The acting is fine, and the climax is completely off the wall, but that doesn't make the intermi...

By Eric D. Snider of EricDSnider.com (7/0)
            Ghastly and horrific, entertaining and mesmerizing, and it smells fantastic.

By Chris Cabin of filmcritic.com (7/0)
            Smells of something a few steps down from Aqua Velva.

By Chris Cabin of filmcritic.com (7/0)
            ...it smells of something a few steps down from Aqua Velva.

                         Reviews of Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
By Victoria Alexander of FilmsInReview.com (7/0)
            A delicious, perverse tale.

By Rob Vaux of Flipside Movie Emporium (7/0)
            A bleakly comic fable, drenched in obsession and the vicious observation of human limitations.

By Peter Canavese of Groucho Reviews (7/0)
            By the time the mad finale rolls around, the viewer will feel had, for Perfume grasps for signifi...

By Bernard Besserglik of Hollywood Reporter (7/0)
            ...succeeds reasonably well in achieving what many said was beyond the scope of cinema: conveying...

By Amy Biancolli of Houston Chronicle (7/0)
            Lush visuals and lusty, rhapsodic language bring Perfume as close as cinematically possible to ca...

By Liz Braun of Jam! Movies (7/0)
            The movie is pretty to look at, but over-long and, in the end, self-conscious. What a disappointm...

                         Reviews of Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
By David Kaplan of Kaplan vs. Kaplan (7/0)
            ....overcomes a laborious start to end in a breathtaking, whirlwind finish.....

By Jeanne Kaplan of Kaplan vs. Kaplan (7/0)
            The film itself is way too long, culminating in a ludicrous orgy scene.....

By Andrea Chase of Killer Movie Reviews (7/0)
            It is Tykwer's particular cinematic gift that he can recreate the inner universe that his charact...

By Carina Chocano of Los Angeles Times (7/0)
            As much as it's in many ways a visual pleasure, tonally, the movie is a mess.

By Mark Dujsik of Mark Reviews Movies (7/0)
            The movie version feels forced, even though it doesn't seem to know what it means.

By Paul Doro of Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (7/0)
            Perfume is not gratuitously violent, nor does it focus on the act of murder itself. There are num...

                         Reviews of Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
By Marty Mapes of Movie Habit (7/0)
            We want to root for him, but he is more of a villain. The dichotomy is savory.

By Lou Lumenick of New York Post (7/0)
            ...this unusual film holds interest for 2 1/2 hours and is so visually vivid you can practically ...

By A. O. Scott of New York Times (7/0)
            ...the only smell produced by these long, breathy close-ups is a metaphorical one, a foul, stale ...

By Jeffrey Westhoff of Northwest Herald (Crystal Lake, IL) (7/0)
            It is refreshing to see Rickman in a heroic role, but everything else about this overripe travest...

By Frank Swietek of One Guy's Opinion (7/0)
            Though it may come across more than a little precious and pretentious, its memory will linger in ...

By Roger Moore of Orlando Sentinel (7/0)
            Even if that broad interpretation -- that art is worth any human cost, that identity can be put o...

                         Reviews of Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
By Violet Glaze of Orlando Weekly (7/0)
            As the body count of sexualized corpses increases Perfume starts to resemble an olfactory Peeping...

By Jeremy C. Fox of Pajiba (7/0)
            The script, such as it is, takes the form of a kinky fairy tale set in a violent, brutish world; ...

By Ethan Alter of Premiere Magazine (7/0)
            The film's spectacle, along with its wicked sense of humor, turns out to be the main source of it...

By Jim Hemphill of Reel.com (7/0)
            The emotional void at the film's center grows larger and larger, until in the movie's penultimate...

By Laura Clifford of Reeling Reviews (7/0)
            In adapting the 1985 Patrick Süskind novel, Tykwer has achieved one of those rarities - a film th...

By James Berardinelli of ReelViews (7/0)
            ...beautiful in its ugliness.

                         Reviews of Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
By Rod Gudino of Rue Morgue Magazine (7/0)
            In a time when the serial killer subgenre is practically the definition of derivative, Perfume is...

By Sean Means of Salt Lake Tribune (7/0)
            There's something, radiating out from Whishaw's cipher of a performance, smelly at the core of Pe...

By William Arnold of Seattle Post-Intelligencer (7/0)
            The film is downright repulsive in places, and otherwise pushes the envelope for an art film, but...

By Rich Cline of Shadows on the Wall (7/0)
            This tale of a brilliant sociopath is disturbing and often uncomfortable to watch. And it's also ...

By Cherryl Dawson and Leigh Ann Palone of TheMovieChicks.com (7/0)
            I enjoyed the film until the big finale. If I had smelled that perfume, perhaps I would have felt...

By Dave Calhoun of Time Out (7/0)
            It’s a film so sumptuous that afterwards you’ll feel you’ve consumed a very, very rich meal indee...

                         Reviews of Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
By Enrique Buchichio of Uruguay Total (7/0)
            Una estupenda reconstrucción histórica y un atractivo tratamiento visual son los principales valo...

By Claudia Puig of USA Today (7/0)
            ...stunningly rendered, disturbing to watch, perverse and, ultimately, emotionally hollow.

By Derek Elley of Variety (7/0)
            The seductive, sensory prose of Patrick Suskind's bestseller, Perfume, reaches the screen with lo...

By Matthew Turner of ViewLondon (7/0)
            This is a thoroughly enjoyable, brilliantly directed thriller with a great script and a terrific ...

By John Beifuss of Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN) (3/5) Login Required (Login Required)
            An extremely ambitious and spectacularly produced thriller indebted to the 1960s tradition of the...

By Christy Lemire of Associated Press (3/4) No reference
            Even though Perfume is primarily about how things (and more importantly, people) smell, it manage...

                         Reviews of Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
By Robert Denerstein of Denver Rocky Mountain News (6/1) Not Reachable
            Perfume reminds us that the line between masterwork and folly can be awfully thin. But the movie ...

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