When I reviewed "Zodiac," I said it was pretty good but too long.
I think "Perfume: The Story of a Murderer" is a fine example of a movie being pretty bad and too long.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0396171/SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!!!
Remember how The Who's Pin Ball Wizard played by sense of smell?
This story is about a serial killer who nasally nitpicks and numbers his victims, so he can distill their oily bodily essences and retain those little drops of scent individually bottled in his personal collection.
Obviously overt olfactory ogling ominously occurs often.
That's creepy enough to be interesting and maybe a Vincent Price horror flick or a Sherlock Holmes mystery movie could have utilized this strange premise.
But here it was a too much of a stretch and too lengthy of a telling for me to take.
There were some interesting parts, but in my final sniff it was simply a stinker that lingered too long.
IMHO, anyone who sees it without wondering or saying,"WTF???," should at least be forced to watch it over and again until they can't smell any roses.
For me, Dustin Hoffman with his big nose, well-cast in a supporting role as a French fragrancy fop, was about the only thing that didn't really reek in the end, in part because he only appeared in the first half.
I'm gonna rank it as being too rank to receive a good recommendation from me for almost all movie goers.
Just my opinion, you might really dig it.
If you do, try “Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus” with Nicole Kidman and Robert Downey, Jr. because that’s another strange one that I liked more:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0422295/A serial killer’s craziness being set off by his sense of smell wasn’t a deal breaker for me; heck, that probably happens a lot more often than we would be comfortable knowing.
But, a story concerning his sense of smell is probably better told in a book, as this story originally was, using descriptive words.
A movie, with only odorless pictures, seems at a distinct, no pun intended, disadvantage.
So, in this case, I guess I'd choose the proverbial thousand words as being worth more than the one picture.
Gig 'em, FAST FRED '65.
Before the world wide web, village idiots usually stayed in their own village.
[This message has been edited by FAST FRED (edited 9/3/2007 2:38p).]
