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Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006)

tomatometer

57

Average Rating: 6.2/10
Reviews Counted: 122
Fresh: 70 | Rotten: 52

Perfume is what you'd expect from a Tom Twyker-directed movie glamorizing a serial killer: a kinetic visual feast, with a dark antihero that's impossible to feel sympathy for.

44

Average Rating: 5.6/10
Critic Reviews: 36
Fresh: 16 | Rotten: 20

Perfume is what you'd expect from a Tom Twyker-directed movie glamorizing a serial killer: a kinetic visual feast, with a dark antihero that's impossible to feel sympathy for.

audience

74

liked it
Average Rating: 3.4/5
User Ratings: 249,787

My Rating

Movie Info

An obsessive French perfumer with a highly developed olfactory sense and an all-consuming drive to capture the essence of love eventually resorts to murder in his unrepentant quest to find the key ingredient for his recipe in director Tom Tykwer's adaptation of author Patrick Suskind's best-selling 1985 novel. Born in a fetid fish market and raised in a dilapidated orphanage, Jean-Baptiste Grenouille (Ben Whishaw) toiled his childhood away in a rank tannery run by the thuggish Grimal (Sam

R, 2 hr. 27 min.

Mystery & Suspense, Drama

Jul 24, 2007

$2.1M

Dreamworks

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer Trailer & Photos

More Photos (19)
More Trailers and Videos (1)

Cast

Critic Reviews for Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

All Critics (127) | Top Critics (36) | Fresh (74) | Rotten (52) | DVD (11)

Tykwer loses his cinematic grip when he tries to blend murder and piety. In his hands, the two don't emulsify.

January 11, 2007 Comment
Carrie Rickey
Philadelphia Inquirer
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer is another nauseous example of style over content: a toxic tale of serial homicide set in 18th-century France that creeps you out faster than it makes you think.

January 10, 2007 Full Review Source: New York Observer | Comment
Rex Reed
New York Observer
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Hated this movie. Hated it.

January 8, 2007 Comments (4)
Richard Roeper
Ebert & Roeper
Top Critic IconTop Critic

[The filmmakers] render a portrait of Paris that both delights and overwhelms the senses. This is a movie where eyes turn into noses, which may run at the many ghastly sights presented.

January 5, 2007 Full Review Source: Toronto Star | Comment
Peter Howell
Toronto Star
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The movie talks suggestively about smells but can't quite find a way to bring them to life, so [director Tom] Tykwer uses images to rub our noses in as many disgusting things as he can.

January 5, 2007 Comment
Bruce Newman
San Jose Mercury News
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The movie is lost. Whishaw succeeds in making the repulsive protagonist thoroughly repulsive, which is probably a testimony to his acting ability. But it doesn't make it anything worth watching.

January 5, 2007 Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle | Comment
Mick LaSalle
San Francisco Chronicle
Top Critic IconTop Critic

It's a hard film to like, but it's even harder to dismiss, simply because it's never less than absolutely fascinating.

March 25, 2009 Full Review Source: Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC) | Comment
Ken Hanke
Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)

[Its] off-the-charts screwiness obscures virtually all shortcomings.

November 21, 2007 Full Review Source: Lessons of Darkness | Comment
Nick Schager
Lessons of Darkness

The film's DVD extras are limited to a 'making of' featurette and a set of movie trailers.

July 20, 2007 Full Review Source: Apollo Guide | Comment
Brian Webster
Apollo Guide

While you might not come away from a viewing feeling entirely satisfied, you will almost certainly have lots to talk about.

July 20, 2007 Full Review Source: Apollo Guide | Comment
Brian Webster
Apollo Guide

The film scarcely inspires awe, but the image and sound transfer do.

July 10, 2007 Full Review Source: Slant Magazine | Comment
Ed Gonzalez
Slant Magazine

Tykwer squeezes every possible drop of melodramatic beauty out of this material. ...But the gorgeous visuals aren't enough to keep the drama from occasionally degenerating into beautifully produced hokum.

June 15, 2007 Full Review Source: Kalamazoo Gazette | Comment
James Sanford
Kalamazoo Gazette

Una estupenda reconstrucción histórica y un atractivo tratamiento visual son los principales valores de esta interesante aunque irregular adaptación.

April 6, 2007 Full Review Source: Uruguay Total | Comment
Enrique Buchichio
Uruguay Total

Plenty of high profile movies are about the tormented lives of artists. Perfume: The Story of a Murderer takes it up a notch: It's a legitimate artwork.

March 15, 2007 Full Review | Comment
Mark Palermo
Coast (Halifax, Nova Scotia) Source: Coast (Halifax, Nova Scotia)

Agree or disagree, this is a work so bold and provocative and distinctive that it demands to be seen.

March 12, 2007 Full Review Source: culturevulture.net | Comment (1)
George Wu
culturevulture.net

In a time when the serial killer subgenre is practically the definition of derivative, Perfume is %u2013 for better or for worse %u2013 a whiff of something uniquely fresh.

February 12, 2007 Full Review | Comment
Rod Gudino
Rue Morgue Magazine Source: Rue Morgue Magazine
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

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An arthouse film involving obsession, murder, and...perfume? Odd, but intriguing. The broad concept (a man with a highly developed sense of smell, one that is so intense that it is the primary way he experiences the world strives to capture the essence of love) is kinda interesting, and has the potential to be

April 21, 2008
cosmo313
Chris Weber

Super Reviewer

A French peasant boy born with a remarkably acute sense of smell becomes obsessed with capturing the scent of beautiful young girls leading him to murder. I must admit that I found the first act of this film captivating; the visuals are glorious and it gives a palpable feel for the time and context of the story

May 3, 2007
garyX
xGary Xx

Super Reviewer

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer Quotes

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    1. Narrator: He still had enough perfume left to enslave the whole world if he so chose. He could walk to Versailles and have the king kiss his feet. He could write the pope a perfumed letter and reveal himself as the new Messiah. He could do all this, and more, if he wanted to. He possessed a power stronger than the power of money, or terror, or death - the invincible power to command the love of man kind. There was only one thing the perfume could not do. It could not turn him into a person who could love and be loved like everyone else. So, to hell with it he thought. To hell with the world. With the perfume. With himself.
    – Submitted by Anastasia B (12 months ago)

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Foreign Titles

  • Das Parfum (DE)
  • Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006) (CA)
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