Twenty years ago, Patrick Süskind's bestseller Perfume was the very height of literary fashion: a commercial publishing sensation, which tantalised its readers into wanting to read more, the film, achieved the same high calibre. It's a good idea for a story, and the scene in which Grenouille first mixes a perfume for Baldini in his private laboratory is gripping. However, the plot loses 80% of its energy when the scene is removed from Paris to Grasse. The ending scene which is highly inappropriate for people below a certain age gives this amazing film a more unreal feel which was a let down. All the way through you understand that this is in a way possible, horrific yet beautiful at the same time, the end turns to fantasy and feels oddly out of touch with the rest of the film. It was in need of an ending worthy of the rest of the film. Because of this ending the amazing character that was Grenouille loses his watchers attention. Never was a story more obviously in dire need of a proper ending and Grenouille himself - that fiercely wordless sinister yet sweet, feral killer - wastes no time becoming an incredible bore.

Extremely interesting film, including great acting and a very different and unique approach on the horror/thriller genre. I always highly recommend this film to everyone I know ever since it's release.

Also, check out the book by Patrick Suskind, it's quite an entertaining read.

In 'Perfume:The Story of a Murderer' director Tom Tykwer portrays 18th century France as dirty and grimy place stricken with poverty, slavery and sheer cruelty. Among all the dirt is born a special boy with an extremely keen, rather superhuman sense of smell.
The story is about this boy, Jean-Baptiste Genouille, who begins his career by developing some of the finest perfumes under the supervision of a Parisian perfumer, Guiseppe Baldini. Just when the boy's ultimate desire, to distill the essence of the human odor, seems to be impossible to achieve, he discovers the only solution-Murder.
Scintillating performances by Ben Whishaw, Dustin Hoffman and other lead actors compliment the unique storyline of the film, making it a real thriller.
With exceptional cinematography, Screenplay and Storyline, this movie definitely becomes - A Must Watch!

It's a hard film to like, but it's even harder to dismiss, simply because it's never less than absolutely fascinating.The Story of a Murderer never tries to make Jean-Baptiste sympathetic but he's not rendered monstrous, either,he just is a victim of a passion larger and more powerful than any one man can handle.Director Tom Tykwer can be commended for capturing so much of the book's mélange of pleasure, pain and longing for the impossible in Perfume, which is at least the most elegant movie yet made about the exploits of a serial killer.

In this colourful and gripping film, you can literally "smell" the pictures. Sometimes they are captivating, sometimes awful, but they are always fascinating. A great, great movie about sensuality, desire, greed... and the quest for love. Wonderful cast (even Hoffman is excellent!), wonderful music (and the score is not "too" present, which is a good thing), wonderful direction. 2 and a half hours may seem a long time for some, but not for the real sensualists. The story and the film may have their flaws, but they also have outstanding qualities and in a perfect world Tom Tykwer should receive an award for his superb adaptation of the splendid book by Patrick Süsskind.

wow, a serial-killer movie WITHOUT blood and action and wild chase sequences and stuff like this.

People who are used to fast Hollywood Movies certainly won't be satisfied with this movie. It's really unusual, as the novel is. It's generally difficult to convey something like a SMELL in a book or a movie, and it's also difficult to create a satisfying adaption of a novel. So my personal opinion is that The Parfume Movie is one of the few good adaptations, because it eagerly tries to convey the complicated world of smells and the world of Grenouille and also achieves it in many ways. There are of course some parts missing or changed if you compare novel and movie, but that is always the case with adaptations.

I saw the movie one hour ago and have just read some comments. Some of them are "disappointed" or "boooring", but most of these opinions are really not well founded, so I couldn't make out what EXACTLY was so boring and disappointing... However, I'll keep on dwelling in the magic of the movie, looking forward to other more positive comments...

To my dismay this movie has been accused of dealing with the addressed subjects only on the surface and just trying to shock the audience with extreme imagery. I strongly have to disagree with that. "Das Parfum" may be a lot of things but shocking sure isn't one of them. Of course it is visually overwhelming and not only with pictures of pretty flowers and sounds of the wind softly shaking the trees on a warm summer night but what is this movie, if not a piece about the sensuality of the human being? Yes, it is about smells but smelling is just simply not one of the things you can experience while sitting in a movie theatre. This motion picture however comes very close to it. We see close-ups on maggots crawling around and fish getting their heads chopped of but also human bodies in all their perfection and people declaring their honest love for one another. It might be impossible to make the audience fully understand the world in which Jean-Baptiste Grenouille lives but it does manage to create a similar vibe that brings us close to what Grenouille "feels" when he smells. Tom Tykwer beautifully achieves to always put the audience in the right mood, with the help of an amazing soundtrack and great camera work.

One could criticize that Ben Wishaw is too good looking for the part but we have to keep in mind that this story is supposed to be about the character of Grenouille and the way he himself sees his live. Since to him, the smell is the soul of every being, his appearance does not matter to him. So we might as well thank Tom Tykwer for casting an actor who is pretty decent to look at for two and half hours.

Please watch this movie without any prejudices. Open your mind to images and sounds and try to imagine what your feeling could "smell" like. And even if that does not work you can still just enjoy a beautifully told story. Either way, you will be touched.

I just read the book last week and watched the movie yesterday. And I have to say, I liked it. For sure, it wasn't as good as the book. On the one hand it is hard to visualize smells and on the other hand not everything can be shown during the movie. But for me, it was realized pretty well. Even you can not smell the things, you can imagine how they smell which may be due to the camera work, which was well done! For me, the actors did a really good job, too. They played their roles really good and according to Grenouille, I really thought that he was the Grenouille described in the book. The only "negative" thing I can say about that, is that in the book he is described as an ugly person, but Ben Wishow is not ugly. But to me, that didn't really matter. So, all in all I have to say, that the movie isn't as good as the book (which is mostly the case), but although I think that it is a really good made movie.