More times than not a best selling book doesn't transfer to the screen very well, whether it be from not putting enough of the story into the film or putting to much, there are just some elements of the tale that will not convey on to the screen. Here the premise of the story is good and with the successfulness of the book there was an audience that would like to see this narrative come to life. But the drawn out life of the main character is so slow and cumbersome that the viewer finds himself yawning every few minutes.
Born with an acute sense of smell Jean-Baptiste embarks on a mission to capture the essence of a woman and create the ultimate scent, through murder, that will move the world. Visually this film is wonderful, the contrasts between the two classes of people are as distinctive as dark and light. Every time the affluent are on the screen there is vibrant color and when the impoverished have the screen the dank shadows take over. Considering how slowly the film moves you can't be surprised at how mundane and slow the murder scenes are, they just seem to drag for the soul purpose to keep pace with the rest of the movie. Of the whole movie the stand out performance does not come from the lead actor but from Alan Rickman, who over the years has become a wonderful and astonishing character.
With so much emphasis put on the details of the story at times the plot gets lost in the mix, it takes forever to move the characters along that the audience soon loses interest. This film is not for your every day movie watcher, if you like period pieces this would be right up your alley but since this a thriller it was marketed for a horror audience. Unfortunately there aren't enough thrills and action to keep an audience interested in the story, so by the end you're left wondering what happened in the world for the past two and a half hours.
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