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Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: Perfume: The Story of a Murderer never tries to make Jean-Baptiste sympathetic but he's not rendered monstrous, either: He just is a victim of a passion larger and more powerful than any one man can handle. Read more
Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: Tykwer, best known for the ultramodern chase movie Run Lola Run, would seem an unusual choice for a period film, but he infuses the sometimes stately story with vigor; though well past two and a half hours, it never feels long. Read more
Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: A film can reek equally of fine craftsmanship and piping-hot dung, and the proof's in Perfume: The Story of a Murderer. Read more
Christy Lemire, Associated Press: Even though Perfume is primarily about how things (and more importantly, people) smell, it manages to be a feast for all the senses. Read more
Rex Reed, New York Observer: Perfume: The Story of a Murderer is another nauseous example of style over content: a toxic tale of serial homicide set in 18th-century France that creeps you out faster than it makes you think. Read more
Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader: Despite a fairly spectacular climax, the material's generic limitations eventually catch up with the plot. Read more
Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: Weaves a sensual spell of extraordinary delicacy, then sustains it -- up to a point. Read more
Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Jack the Ripper meets Scent of a Woman in Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, an example of why certain books are deemed unfilmable, no matter how talented those involved are. Read more
Nathan Rabin, AV Club: Perfume is ultimately an unmistakable failure, but there's a strange majesty to its epic overreaching. Read more
Richard Nilsen, Arizona Republic: The climax of the film -- quite literally -- is so silly and preposterous that we're likely to leave the theater either laughing at it or grumbling about how such a good idea for a movie could have been so diluted: not perfume, but cheap cologne. Read more
Ty Burr, Boston Globe: The director stays true to the source novel even when it lifts into a magical realism that works only on the page, and his faithfulness betrays him. Perfume is a thriller that Hobbes might have envied. Read more
Carina Chocano, Los Angeles Times: As much as it's in many ways a visual pleasure, tonally, the movie is a mess. Read more
Amy Biancolli, Houston Chronicle: Lush visuals and lusty, rhapsodic language bring Perfume as close as cinematically possible to capturing an elusive sense. Read more
Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: So rich is the book's language about our scented world, it was difficult to imagine a movie capturing the texture of its remarkable and elusive character. Yet, Tykwer and his crew make pungent work of Grenouille's world. Read more
Tom Long, Detroit News: Tykwer has to set a unique tone here -- fairy tales about serial killers being somewhat rare -- and he manages the absurdity of his subject matter well, keeping Jean-Baptiste right on the edge between monster and genius. Read more
Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: Perfume misses some of the subtler base notes of Suskind's creepier, more self-aware original, but Whishaw and Tykwer blend the movie into something quite heady in its own bottle. Read more
Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: Director Tom Tykwer can be commended for capturing so much of the book's melange of pleasure, pain and longing for the impossible in Perfume, which is at least the most elegant movie yet made about the exploits of a serial killer. Read more
Ed Halter, L.A. Weekly: A noble experiment in pushing the limits of cinema, but one too many sequences of ruffling silks and dreamy flower bouquets evoke little more than the ad-agency cliches of an elongated Chanel No. 5 commercial. Read more
Jan Stuart, Newsday: Perfume may be one of the most sumptuous serial-killer movies of all time. Between those tumultuous opening passages and a stunner of a climax, however, it's also a bit of a drag. Read more
Jack Mathews, New York Daily News: The movie does tease and torment the olfactory nerve in ways Estee Lauder never dreamed of. Read more
Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: Even if that broad interpretation -- that art is worth any human cost, that identity can be put on, like a scent -- leaves you cold, there's a world to immerse yourself in, a killer to be pursued, and an innocent to be feared for. Read more
James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Perfume is a challenging motion picture, and one whose impressions are not easily shaken. Read more
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: It ventures so fearlessly down one limited, terrifying, seductive dead end, and finds there a solution both sublime and horrifying. It took imagination to tell it, courage to film it, thought to act it, and from the audience it requires a brave curiosity. Read more
Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: A memorable and outrageous movie, but one more likely to be remembered as a massive folly than a whopping success. Read more
Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: The movie is lost. Whishaw succeeds in making the repulsive protagonist thoroughly repulsive, which is probably a testimony to his acting ability. But it doesn't make it anything worth watching. Read more
Jennie Punter, Globe and Mail: Perfume, a fast-paced allegorical tale about the pursuit of perfection, may fill the senses for its duration, but without a discernible psychological essence it does not linger for long. Read more
Peter Howell, Toronto Star: [The filmmakers] render a portrait of Paris that both delights and overwhelms the senses. This is a movie where eyes turn into noses, which may run at the many ghastly sights presented. Read more
Dave Calhoun, Time Out: It's a film so sumptuous that afterwards you'll feel you've consumed a very, very rich meal indeed. Read more
Claudia Puig, USA Today: Stunningly rendered, disturbing to watch, perverse and, ultimately, emotionally hollow. Read more
Derek Elley, Variety: The seductive, sensory prose of Patrick Suskind's bestseller, Perfume, reaches the screen with loads of visual panache but only intermittent magic. Read more
Ed Halter, Village Voice: It's a noble experiment in pushing the limits of cinema, but Tykwer never achieves true profundity. Read more
Desson Thomson, Washington Post: The film is an uneven experience. Read more