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Perfume

Profumo

Morbidly mesmerizing

By JOAN E. VADEBONCOEUR
www.syracuse.com

23 Gennaio 2007

There is a morbidly mesmerizing feel to "Perfume: The Story of a Murderer." Mesmerizing because Tom Tykwer has filmed it with a painter's eye. Morbid because the film makes moviegoers feel for the young man who commits the heinous crimes, which also is due to a magnetic performance from Ben Wishaw in the title role.

Jean-Baptiste Grenouille (Wishaw) is born into a world of stench - a fish market - in the Paris of the 18th century. Yet, he has no olfactory organ himself. After passing through an orphanage owned by a crass crone, he winds up at a tannery with a cruel owner. Accidentally stopping by a perfumery, his sense of fragrance is aroused. So he assesses his life's work: find the finest scent, one that will give him a place in life.

Baptiste links with a down-on-his-luck perfume creator (Dustin Hoffman), and his sense of smell restores the older man to prominence. But Baptiste has tasted blood, literally, when he kills a pretty prostitute and extracts her essence. He must move on, specifically to the perfume capital of the country. There, he becomes a serial killer, causing chaos.

His most coveted scent comes from a sweet young girl whose father (Alan Rickman) is rich, yet wants to engage her to a foppish nobleman. He is vigilant and crafty. Then, when Baptiste is captured, the film turns to a religious motif, making the condemned a Christ-like figure whose fragrance can turn him from the gallows.

Wishaw's gaunt body and haunted eyes contribute to his successful portrait. Wisely, Rickman underplays to keep the movie from going completely out of hand.