60
It's a noble experiment in pushing the limits of cinema, but Tykwer never achieves true profundity.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
30
The New York Times by A.O. Scott
Try as it might to be refined and provocative, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer never rises above the pedestrian creepiness of its conceit.
70
A memorable and outrageous movie, but one more likely to be remembered as a massive folly than a whopping success.
40
Los Angeles Times by Carina Chocano
What's missing is less a sense of the protagonist's inner nose (which is very well-trammeled) as a sense of his inner life, motivation or desire.
80
The odd conclusion renders it somewhat oblique, but Perfume is a feast for the senses.
70
The seductive, sensory prose of Patrick Suskind's bestseller, "Perfume," reaches the screen with loads of visual panache but only intermittent magic.
63
ReelViews by James Berardinelli
Deeply flawed though it may be, Perfume is a challenging motion picture, and one whose impressions are not easily shaken.
50
Wall Street Journal by Joe Morgenstern
Weaves a sensual spell of extraordinary delicacy, then sustains it -- up to a point.
58
Perfume is ultimately an unmistakable failure, but there's a strange majesty to its epic overreaching. It can be faulted for many things, but not for lacking the courage of its convictions.
Confession: I did not get this film. My French friends all liked the film so maybe it lost something in translation, however I thought it was just weird. The story seems to be grotesque for the sake of being grotesque. It's based on a best-selling book (which I admit I have not read), but if there is any magic in the book it has been lost on it's way to the screen.