FOLLOW YOUR (LETHAL) NOSE

Perfume

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer makes scents, not sense. Apologies for the lame pun, but Tom Twyker's brain-scrambling surrealist fable, based on the acclaimed book by Patrick Suskind, invites facetiousness. Set amid the dank alleys of 18th-century France, the story follows a troubled young man named Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, abandoned at birth and forced into a harsh life of labor without a single kind soul to help him along. His only chance for a better life is his powerfully receptive nose, able to detect odors far and wide, and Jean-Baptiste finds his passion in the art of perfume design. His obsession with the luscious smells of gorgeous women eventually develops a lethal streak, and the talented perfumer begins murdering hordes of beauties in order to pilfer their aromas for his own devices.

Read the rest of the review in The Reeler...