Perfume: The Story of a Murderer Review

1766. City of Grasse, South of France

A crowd has gathered in the city's main square to witness the execution of perfumer Jean-Baptiste GRENOUILLE (Ben Whislaw). The crowd cheers as he is dragged onto the main balcony in shackles, and erupts into applause as sentence is pronounced.

22 years before. Paris

Grenouille's MOTHER (Birgit Minichmayr) gives birth to him wrapped in the stench of the Parisian fish market, in the hottest month of the year. She tries to hide the unwanted child among the discarded fish guts at the bottom of her stall. However, the baby, as if touched by fate, lets out a desperate cry and manages to attract the attention of an intern. The authorities arrest the woman and behead her for attempting to murder her own child.

Grenouille spends the first years of his life in the orphanage of MADAME GAILLARD (Sian Thomas). The other children immediately sense that the newcomer is different, he instills fear in them and they try to suffocate him shortly after he enters. But Mme. Gaillard does not intend to give up the subsidy that she supposes to have the child there and she saves his life. At three years old, and despite not being able to walk or talk, it is clear that Grenouille has an extraordinary sense of smell. He crawls on the floors of the orphanage, learning to experience the world around him through his olfactory power.

When the boy turns 13, the municipal government stops subsidizing Madame Gaillard's accommodation, so she decides to sell him for 10 francs to GRIMAL (Sam Douglas), the owner of a tannery. The work he does there, handling stinking nitrates and rotting hides, is extremely dangerous, but the boy survives those infernal conditions, grows up and becomes a powerful and resistant young man.

During his first visit to Paris, amid the mixture of urban smells, the wind carries to Grenouille the most exquisite aroma he has ever been able to feel. Ecstatic, he pursues the essence through the avenues and alleys, under the moon, until he reaches its origin: a beautiful PLUME SELLER (Carolina Herfurth). The girl seems to feel a slight icy current on the back of her neck and she turns to see Grenouille's eyes boring into hers. About to cry out, Grenouille covers her mouth with his hand and drags her into the shadows to avoid being seen by an approaching couple. From the darkness, he watches as the lovers kiss while the girl he's holding gasps for air. Finally, the pair turn the corner and Grenouille releases the saleswoman, only to discover that he has just killed her. Desperately, try to capture its fragrance, drink from it and hold it between your hands as if it were a liquid. But the irresistible scent fades with the life of the young woman and Grenouille feels an immense loss for the essence that has just disappeared. Capturing that scent again will be her task for the rest of her life.

Grenouille is introduced as an apprentice to perfumer BALDINI (Dustin Hoffman), a man whose business is failing and who is desperate to find a new, "exclusive" fragrance. Grenouille quickly demonstrates his ability to create new scents, a perfection that will restore Baldini's reputation. In exchange, he will ask the old master to teach him the art of capturing and preserving essences. When he learns that the essence of a living thing cannot be distilled into a fragrance, Grenouille nearly faints. However, there is still one possibility: the mysterious method of enfleurage. Baldini tells him that the only place it takes place is in the city of Grasse. There he will be able to find the knowledge he is looking for.

Grenouille immediately leaves for Grasse. In a cave in the Massif Central he discovers that he has no personal scent, as if he did not exist. This experience upsets him and he decides to create his own essence that makes him irresistible.

On the way to Grasse, he passes a freight carriage that also includes the beautiful daughter of merchant RICHIS (Alan Rickman), LAURA (Rachel Hurd-Wood). Grenouille smells something in the air. There he is again, that wonderfully fatal scent that he had only noticed once in his life. An essence that he must possess.

Grenouille signs a contract as an official in the small perfume workshop of MADAME ARNULFI (Corinna Harfouch). He receives a modest salary and a windowless cabin in which he can sleep. He sets out to master the art of enfleurage and thereby capture whatever essence he desires.

During the following weeks, someone is murdering the exceptionally beautiful young girls. The merchant Richis is the only one who suspects that the villain is an obsessed collector of beauty. At first it only happens with the country girls – a shepherdess, a lemon seller, a milkmaid – but when it comes time for the beautiful twin daughters of his friend TALLIEN (Carlos Reig) and they find their naked corpses with shaved heads, Richis begins to seriously fear for the life of his daughter Laura.

Twelve dead girls have already been found. Grenouille opens a small cabinet and sees twelve glass jars, each containing only a few drops of amber-colored oil. It only lacks an essence, a last note that will complete her perfume.

Panic spreads. The locals bar the doors and secure the windows. A suspect is arrested in the deaths, but Richis is convinced the authorities have got it wrong. Cloaked in the black cloak of night, he flees the city with her daughter, taking her to a safe haven on the coast. However, Grenouille follows Laura's fragrance to the Mediterranean. The next morning, when Richis finds the naked body of his daughter, with her beautiful curls sheared off, he collapses in despair.

Grenouille kneels before a small bonfire in the woods, where he has set up his equipment. A small drop of oil falls from the end of an alembic into a small jar and mixes it with the other twelve essences. As he hides the perfume in his pocket, he sniffs the air in all directions. He is surrounded by soldiers, who will seize him. Back in Grasse, he readily confesses to the crimes, although he remains silent about his motives for committing them.

A large crowd throngs Grasse's main square on the day of the execution, though Grenouille manages to pour a few drops of her perfume on her wrist. The wind carries the fragrance to the audience in the square and the entire mass of people feels an intoxicating sensation of love for the accused and for everything around them and merges into a great mass orgy. Even Richis puts his arms around her daughter's killer, imploring his forgiveness. Grenouille, who had never experienced love, faints.

Grenouille still has enough perfume to enchant the whole world, and she returns to her hometown, the Paris fish market. He smears himself with all the perfume and allows himself to be devoured -literally- by the people who think they love him. All that remains of it is the bottle... with one last drop of the most valuable perfume in the world.