Nothing about this movie makes a lot of sense, which is too bad because I generally enjoyed it...and with some changes I might have REALLY enjoyed it.

Tom Tykwer (the interesting and visually successful Run Lola Run) directs this tribute to olfactory experiences - smells, to be blunt.  The main character, Jean-Baptiste, overcomes the odds as a newborn orphan and grows into adulthood.  As he ages, he realizes he posesses the most precise sense of smell in the world, and finds joy in every odor whether the general population would classify them as *good* smells or *BAD* smells.

Eventually he finds his most consuming scent - that of a human female - and he becomes obsessed with trying to find a way to preserve...discovering by accident that the marvelous perfume of a human body disappears once we are dead.  With assistance from a has-been prefume legend (played wonderfully and lightly by Dustin Hoffman) Jean-Baptiste learns the various perfume methods for distilling and preserving scents.  He is then set to begin his life's work - the development of the greatest perfume ever invented, which unfortunately requires the sacrifice of a number of female victims to accomplish.

It should be difficult to translate his extraordinary thrill of everyday scents to a visual medium, but Tykwer does a masterful job, bringing to light the immesnse beauty in the colors and textures of life at the same time.  Whether it is the curve of a neck, the shiny skin of smelly fresh fesh, or a frog laying eggs, we see with our eyes the majesty Jean-Baptiste absorbs with his nose.

As I said, very little of this movie makes sense, from the unnecessary addition of "The Story of a Murderer" to the title to the final 30 minutes (including two or three scenes which are just SO DUMB that the movie is nearly ruined in the process).  But if you can work your way around that and enjoy the remainder, I guess you could do worse than see this film.  At least you'll find something to talk about afterward.  Besides, the information on the art of perfumery is by itself a very interesting and enlightening added bonus.