Perfect Sense (2011) - Review
Originally published September 2015I'm not one for movies of the romance genre (go figure), but after giving up on that piece of trash movie with Nicolas Cage and Hayden Christensen (Outcast) for being so dreadfully boring when I expected something laughably bad, I came across Perfect Sense on Netflix. It claimed to be a romance film with a somewhat dark and ominous premise. So, due to the circumstances, I was willing to partake in a little romance with some melancholy sprinkled in between.
The melancholy wasn't just a small helping, however. Perfect Sense is a dark film that is consistently bleak throughout with a bit of tenacious optimism in there to hold us and the film all together. Perfect Sense stars Eva Green as Susan, a lonely epidemiologist with a somewhat bitter and anti-social attitude from her extended time being single. She and her fellow scientists encounter a disturbing phenomenon of a disease that is slowly sweeping the entire world with a 100% infection rate. The disease is as mysterious as the writing wishes it to be because there are very few details Susan and her partner uncover about it other than the symptoms. Those symptoms are simply intense emotions of a particular variety, followed by the permanent loss of one of the primary senses, starting with the sense of smell.
Meanwhile, Ewan McGregor plays Michael, the (head?) chef at a local upscale restaurant. He is quite unaware of the details of the impending pandemic. In fact, he's just as unaware of the fact that a pretty lady like Susan was living in an apartment so conveniently close to his work. Interesting that he had never noticed or talked to before the plot decided it necessary and there is no sign that either of them is new to the neighborhood, but I digress.
Image: IFC Films
The story swaps back and forth between the two characters throughout the film with a slightly stronger focus on Susan as they inevitably meet and go through the typical romantic pattern of a movie. Before I get too into the rest here are some Pros and Cons:
Pros
The music is beautiful, fantastic, and absolutely essential to the film. If the music were missing, the best moments of this movie wouldn't be nearly as memorable.
Both stars are great actors perfectly capable of displaying the intense emotions of the disease's symptoms convincingly and immediately.
Some interesting camera direction and an appropriate tone for the film.
The premise, though vague and something like a hypothetical writing prompt, is an interesting one that makes you think more about the film than simply the romance on the screen.
The movie chooses not to dwell too much on romance without compromising our time with the characters and comes across as a mature romantic movie that doesn't feel cheesy.
A lot of Eva Green boob-time to coincide with McGregor's brief junk display.
It's interesting to see a somewhat optimistic prediction of how people might behave in the event that the entire human race were to start losing its primary senses.
Cons
The avant-garde style of the film can get a little heavy-handed at times, especially with the monotone narration leading the way.
The premise, while interesting, still comes across as a bit of a gimmick. It feels like a writing prompt that barely evolved out of a writing class, based on how little effort is put into what might be causing the phenomenon, or if there was any possible solution. The lack of focus on the disease works in the movie's favor at times by letting us focus on the characters, but the lack of detail shows a lack of effort on the part of the writing.
The dialogue, while not cheesy, can be a bit stale, especially in the beginning where the characters are talking about their relationship status in a somewhat unconvincing fashion. It feels very romance novel-y
The movie takes a while to get into, as the bizarre premise makes the experience a little weird at first.
The movie still follows the pattern of a romance movie a little too closely, even though it tries to cover it up with some quality acting and interesting circumstances.
Plot & Thoughts
I liked this movie a lot more than I initially expected I would. The premise drew me in, and while the movie didn't focus too much on it or give the phenomenon enough details to expand into a more realistic scenario, it still offered up some interesting dialogues and a thought-provoking experience. It brought up the question of what it means to be human, how much of who we are is based on our emotions and sensations, and how would we as a species adapt to each other and our world as it slowly became more alien to us with the loss of our senses. The premise manages to help the film more than hurt it and helps provide some interesting problems and solutions for the characters, even if they feel a bit cheap.
I liked the fact that the two protagonists don't truly bond with one another until they both start experiencing the symptoms of the disease. It helped create a more unique and interesting dynamic for their developing relationship. For the majority of the movie, their relationship is very physical and doesn't quite feel like the typical slow falling-in-love scenario, which actually makes their relationship a little more tense because it feels like they don’t quite know each other enough. It helped make their relationship believably fragile enough for the inevitable romantic conflict that has to happen because it's a romance movie. The conflict was arbitrary and the emotions that followed were as well, but it was resolved in a way that felt satisfying, even for me. At the very least, the actors playing the characters were so good at it, that I didn't need too much convincing to go along with it.
Image: IFC Films
What helped with all of it was the amazing score by Max Richter. I cannot stress enough how much of my opinion of this movie rests on the music playing in the background. I can't think of the last time the music was so important to my enjoyment of a film. As iconic and great as Hanz Zimmer's soundtrack to Inception is, I feel like the film would still stand on its own if it were removed. For Perfect Sense, however, I think that without the music, it wouldn't nearly be as powerful.
It's a powerful soundtrack that is able to evoke the emotions on the screen in a way I don't hear often. Examples of similar moments that stand out in my mind include how the string instruments slowly whine in The Dark Knight when the Joker is on screen to make the tension higher, or the jubilation that comes when the Back to the Future theme song kicks in at just the right moment as Marty goes forward in time from 1955. The score of Perfect Sense manages to evoke intense sorrow, tension, and optimism using a soft melancholic tone that works well to amplify the intended mood. If the music was not there and replaced by something far less primal and emotional, the moments would not have had a lasting impact and I would have thought this was just a quick mash-up film between the Sci-Fi and Lifetime networks.
TL;DR (Conclusion)
It's a romance movie. If you don't like romance in your films at all, I doubt you'll care for this too much. Though, I'm not one for the genre, myself, so you never know. It's possible you may be able to latch on to the other pieces of this movie that make it an interesting film.
As for those who do like romances, I've never seen Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind (though very much aware of its events), but I feel like people who enjoyed that film might find something they like in Perfect Sense. It has a science fiction premise that asks its audience to think. It uses a melancholic tone to bring out the optimism of lovers in a world crumbling around them. It uses its stellar actors and musical score to elevate the quality of the film to another level. While no masterpiece, I think even the coldest and most damaged hearts might beat a little after watching Perfect Sense.