MovieChat Forums > Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2007) Discussion > Was a solid 10/10 film- untill the endin...

Was a solid 10/10 film- untill the ending.

posted 13 years ago by MegaMaverick
31 replies | jump to latest

I loved this movie. I honestly don't think I've quite seen a movie like this before, It was so unique in it's story telling and so disturbing and dark, as well being extremely gripping and interesting. Great direction and acting by everyone, I'd consider this movie to be near perfect untill roughly 1:40 minutes into it...

... Then came STUPID ending. What the hell? He releases his perfume into the thousands and thousands who wanted him dead, so they all get naked and have huge orgy? W.T.F. That was beyond ridiculous. I don't care if it is in the book- that means the book has a ending stupid as well.

And then if that weren't enough then came another STUPID ending where he pours the rest of the perfume all over his hair and a bunch of hobos eat him alive. Just no.

Did anybody else hate ending(s)?

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[–] victorysip 13 years ago

i just found the ending to fantasy for me to enjoy it. the whole film was enlightening and beautifully shot but then the ending came along and I couldn't understand what was going on. any kind of believable gore and obsession went out of the window and made the film look a bit of a joke.

[–] MegaMaverick 13 years ago

100% agreed

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[–] skywalkr2 12 years ago

Completely agree.

[–] john-m-holt 10 years ago

You misunderstood because you weren't paying attention. Remember the perfume seller telling him the legend of the Egyptian Pharaohs tomb that when opened there was a lingering sent that made everyone on Earth felt like never ever before? (Exaggeration is everyone on Earth but you get the point).

Well the ending was him showing they he actually did it. However, the cost was greater than he imagined..

Not saying the ending wasn't stupid, but I understood it..

[–] nextwooden 13 years ago

I was more upset about Alan Rickman's reaction. I have no problem with the "perfect perfume". I did have a problem with him not getting his revenge! And then to call him his son??? Ugh!

Doesn't it give you a headache asking stupid questions?
Pépé le Moko

[–] slimpeter15 13 years ago

Come on. I think that was the whole point of the film.

Baldini (Dustin H.) tells him about a legendary perfume which was only once made in the history of mankind in Egypt and according to the story, it made everybody feel like they are in heaven. The receipt was known, except that one last smell that nobody could figure out.

And that's what he is doing after giving up the plan of preserving the smell of the body. He manages to do that by killing the last woman and that's how strong and beautiful smell was born. People stepped out of their body and felt like they are in paradise.

To tell you the truth, I did not read the book and did not hear or read anything about the movie, but when they caught him at the end, I waited for this to happen to escape from being beaten to death.

[–] milo44 12 years ago

I just got through watching this movie .. thanks for your thoughts .. I understood the movie after reading them .. thanks again .. milo44 .. peace to you .

[–] linda10989 12 years ago

I yelled WTF at the TV screen when it was over. You were 100% correct--this movie was wonderful until the ending. It ruined the movie completely.

It was beautifully shot, the costumes, the performances (aside from Dustin Hoffman's) were terrific but the ending took all that and flushed it away down the toilet.

This is one movie that I won't be watching EVER again, that's for sure!

[–] sejdaa 12 years ago

Actually, I could not understand the endings :) I did not read the book, i think that is why i could not get it. but, i was expecting something different, something that is more reasonable. After all, it could have been explained more clearly why he wanted to be murdered like that. He accomplished what he wanted,he created the perfume, so?

[–] kjs-2 12 years ago

All the murders happened because growing up he never knew tenderness. He feels love but has a limited amount of ways to express himself since he was constantly brutalized. The first girl is perfect love to his mind and what happens to her is so sad because not only could it have turned out completely different for both of them had he been able to express himself in a more gentle fashion but also because it sets in motion his quest to recreate that perfect scent of love. Every girl that gets killed we see him slipping further and further from normality and each imminently preventable if only he knew better. I felt equally sad for the murderer as for the victims. There is even some glimmers of hope with that one girl...

Notice how the orgy scene didn't feel like porn. Everyone was very tender and gentle and loving towards each other. it was this massive display that makes the murderer realize how different things could have been had he experienced this gentleness sooner. This realization is why he no longer cares about escape and wants to die.

In other words that massive display is a display of exactly what was lacking in his life growing up and the lack of which caused all the murders to happen. That massive a display of such tenderness is what he needed to understand his shortcomings and for him to feel the true depth of the sadness of his actions. He had felt as if accidents, circumstances and lack of understanding from the rest of the world had led him down his path towards "me and my great work vs. the world". But it was simply his own lack of experience and understanding of tenderness that caused it all. Knowing how preventable all that sadness and horror was is the heaviness he cannot live with.

[–] crazyj89 12 years ago

Exactly! I just wrote a really huge argument about this in the "Why would anyone like this" thread (so if you want a more detailed critique you can find it there) but Grenouille just wanted some lovin'!

He goes his entire life being mentored by people who don't actually care for him but only see him as a source of income, all of whom have an "ends-justify-the-means" mentality.

However, I see his tears at the end more as a realization that, as the narrator concurs, he would never be loved or be able to love. The creation of the perfume was his last-ditch attempt at gaining genuine love, but it only gave him power to make people love each other or idolize him. And as we saw, even the tender love inspired in the crowd was not genuine or was only 'genuine' for a short period.

it was this massive display that makes the murderer realize how different things could have been had he experienced this gentleness sooner

I think his goal from the beginning was, perhaps unconsciously, an attempt to gain love, something he had honestly not experienced ever in his life. I think at that moment it was less of a thought of waiting too long to try a different approach but more of a realization that it wasn't going to happen. He created power, not love. And instead of just murdering himself, he destroyed the perfect perfume in the process because it failed too.

[–] poin-dexter 12 years ago

You could also say that the very idea that the perfume did not have that effect on him meant he did not, or could not, truly appreciate the smell. To him, they're basically just smells, but to everyone else around him, those smells change their behaviour and perception, making them act on their most primal instincts, drawing them to each other. And if we accept that the smell is the very essence or "soul" of the thing, we should be able to accept that the distilled souls of 13 virgin girls would form the very essence of love itself. And that Grenouille does not himself have a "soul"?

The whole story is rather tongue-in-cheek, requiring you to suspend your disbelief multiple times. The idea that scent can have that affect on us is realistically absurd, but in the context of the story, moreover in the context of Grenouille's story - it's an important development and it makes sense.

I'm Dexter Morgan. I... can't think of anything clever to say.

[–] hammer_principessa 12 years ago

Agreed. I didn't necessarily think it was a 10/10 film up till that point, but it was decent. But once it hit that gallows scene up till the end, it was just all too ridiculous.

Thinking back, if the smell of the perfume had such a powerful long-distance range, wouldn't the soldiers who surrounded Jean-Baptiste right as he finished creating the perfume would have smelled it and fallen into a similar stupor? Conveniently not.

"You're never too old to have a happy childhood"

[–] supatopcheta 12 years ago

I believe all you have posted here have slept during the movie.
It's all about the egyptian recipe that stood for thousands of years. Jean have found it and that's why he was so surprised at the people at the end. He truly made them believe they are in heaven, in front of an angel etc.
And all this is being proven at the very last scene with the final drop from the bottle.

[–] milo44 12 years ago

I just saw it today and loved it .. Some get it and some don't .. peace .

[–] maximusveritas 11 years ago

If they just stopped with the crowd believing he was an angel and sparing him, that would be ok. It was the orgy and everything that came after that which just ruined it.

[–] duckie_bb 10 years ago

It was an amazing ending!

[–] Crystalline3 12 years ago

It's a film. With it comes fiction. Fantasy. Or simply just different analyses of the world we exist in. That's what films are. The exploration of the unknown and the beautiful. To travel far beyond our understandings.

You need to learn to keep a far more open mind.

"The irrationality of a thing is not an argument of its existence, rather, a condition of it."