DirkH’s review published on Letterboxd:
Part of Dastardly Difficult December: film nr.63
Once again that ugly rift between enjoying a film on its own merits and judging it on the source material it's based on rears its ugly head. As a film it is very well made, but Suskind's novel it is based on is not really done justice as it misses too much of the story to get to the true essence of it.
Das Parfum is a stunning novel. It is a surreal exploration of the mind of a disturbed madman, set against a luscious backdrop. It is part tense and gruesome thriller, part philosophical expose on the psyche of man and the nature of good and evil. A tough read, but a very rewarding one.
The film is expertly directed by Twyker, who is obviously a fan of the source material as he treats everything with the greatest respect, shown, for example, in the exquisite set design. In a story that is all about a sense that doesn’t translate to film, I was very impressed by how Twyker managed to capture Grenouille’s sense of smell. This is perhaps most strikingly done in the opening scene, his birth, which is perhaps the most impressive scene in the film. The quick succession of imagery in that scene and the short, gliding glimpses of Grenouille’s victims, manage to spark our imaginations as to how what we see would smell. A very impressive thing indeed and I loved it.
The entire cast varies from adequate to great, but the most important performance here is of course given by Wishaw. I thought he was good, not great. He is at his best when he is feral, beast-like in his emotions. Yet in the smaller moments I found him to be a bit flat, not inviting me to wonder about what is going on in his mind.
What I miss in this film is its sense of purpose. What is it trying to say? In the novel, everything that happens leads up to that epic conclusion and it shows mankind at its most vulnerable and self-centred weakness, all the result of the protagonist’s urge for recognition and sense of belonging, fuelled by his own absence of a distinguishing smell. And while the film shows us this, it misses that deeper layer of why it happened and what it means. That, to me, has to do with the distance between the audience and the protagonist. We never fully understand him, which is necessary to grasp what we’re seeing. This is probably the main reason why I avoided watching it for so long and while I really think it is an excellent film, that missing piece detracted somewhat from my enjoyment of it.