Lord of the Perfumer (Tykwer movie)

I thought it was going so well... until it went and fucked itself. (and I'll try not to spoil any ending details)

I went to see Perfume: The Story of a Murderer at the Michigan Theater tonight. You may remember Tom Tykwer from the remarkable Run Lola Run a couple years back, and this one is as remarkable to begin with. Starts slow, with a little bit of that fairy-tale story narration background and development. The visuals are great. The journey and obsession of the perfumer is compelling. And the transition from victim to hero to villain to messiah to __?__ is slow and smooth. Credit to be given for that.

But Tykwer sharply and directly screwed the pooch when he brought on the whole-village orgy scene (I bet you're wondering "now how could that be a bad thing?" Trust me, bad acting, even by 1000 naked extras, is still bad acting). This would be the point where the movie became a hackneyed cross between Jitterbug Perfume (the quest for the ultimate scent "something the ancients knew but was lost in modern history") Lord of the Rings ("one perfume to rule them all, and in the darkness bind them") The Pied Piper, and Jack the Ripper.

One thing about Grenouille not having his own bodily smell, yet collecting and preserving the smells of others - a little too heavy handed with the smell-as-metaphor-for-soul. It's fairly clear that Grenouille is essentially a sociopath and has no understanding or empathy for other human beings. If he did, he wouldn't be killing. Maybe it's his lack of scent that makes his sense of smell so powerful?

Hell, maybe you'll like it if you see it. If you do, do let me know what you think of the turn it takes right at the orgy/public execution (which isn't the ending, by the way).