Perfume offers eau de crud.
Director Tom Tykwer, who created an international sensation with the contemporary thriller Run Lola Run, has turned this portrait of an 18th-century French serial killer into a Hannibal Lecter movie for aesthetes and highbrows. Tykwer proved himself a kinetic entertainer to his bones in Lola, whose heroine never stopped moving. But in Perfume he's saddled with an anti-hero whose nose never stops twitching.
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (Paramount) Starring Ben Whishaw, Dustin Hoffman, Alan Rickman. Directed by Tom Tykwer. Rated R. Time 148 minutes.