the horrors and beauties depicted in this film, they're so well evoked visually. Disturbing, sensual, beautiful, intense. I wasn't interested in seeing the film till I saw Ben Whishaw in the new version of Brideshead Revisited; his performance there made me curious to see what else he'd done. In Perfume his character is practically nonverbal, but what he conveys with face and body is most eloquent. Anytime he's not on screen, the film turns ordinary, despite the talents of Dustin Hoffman and Alan Rickman.
Whishaw's Jean-Baptiste Grenouille is not evil-intentioned so much as innocently amoral. He steadfastly pursues his obsession with preserving the beauty he finds in the scents of young women and making himself notable through his creation. It becomes sort of a fable for our time--a metaphor for celebrity. In the end, Grenouille discovers that fame and recognition are not what he really wants, because although he has created a perfume that makes everyone love and venerate him, it hasn't made him any more able to love or connect with anyone.