PERFUME: THE STORY OF A MURDERER — ** — Ben Whishaw, Dustin Hoffman, Rachel Hurd-Wood; rated R (violence, nudity, sex, vulgarity, gore, torture, profanity).
"Perfume: The Story of a Murderer" actually gets sillier as it goes along, which is really saying something for a visually rich fantasy/thriller about a man who kills women so he can capture their scents.
The concept probably works better in print — Patrick Suskind's source material, "Das Parfum," was a best-selling novel. But cinematically, the concept comes off as laughably ludicrous. And the unconvincing period trappings and performances in this adaptation certainly don't help.
British actor Ben Whishaw stars as Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, a young Frenchman whose acute sense of smell ultimately proves to be his undoing. After years of hard labor, he finally finds his patron in the form of Giuseppe Baldini (Dustin Hoffman), a master perfume maker with a need for an assistant possessing such a talented sniffer.
But Jean-Baptiste turns murderous as he creates his unique concoctions. And he's set his sights on Laura Richis (Rachel Hurd-Wood, from 2003's "Peter Pan"), the beautiful young daughter of an aristocrat (Alan Rickman).
Among filmmaker Tom Tykwer's bigger gaffes is the casting. Most of the primary cast members are Brits trying to pass as French, save for Hoffman, who's supposed to be Italian but makes little attempt at an accent. However, as goofy as he is, Hoffman is the most watchable thing in this overlong, would-be epic.
And Tykwer and cinematographer Frank Griebe do capture some handsome, if often grisly, images.
"Perfume: The Story of a Murderer" is rated R for some strong violence (various killings and violence against women), female and partial male nudity, simulated sex and other sexual contact (including an orgy scene), crude sexual references and flatulence humor, gore, a scene of torture and scattered profanity. Running time: 147 minutes.
E-mail: jeff@desnews.com