Music, Style & Culture

Perfect Sense

An elegant piece of filmmaking which grips until its enigmatic and powerful denouement.

Released in cinemas 7th October 2011.

Although it is hard to review a film whilst weeping on your keyboard, it is safe to say that Perfect Sense is a tender and affecting effort from talented director David Mackenzie.

It is a bizarre mixture of science fiction and romance, set in a near future where a rapidly moving and mysterious plague is gradually robbing the world's population of each of their senses. Epidemiologist Susan (Eva Green) and chef Michael (Ewan McGregor), who both consider themselves immune to love, meet amid the slow disintegration of the world this causes, and despite their cynicism eventually fall in love.

From the opening scenes, it becomes clear that what we are dealing with here is very firmly an arthouse movie - sullen attractive people walking along windswept beaches, haunting, poetic voiceover, that sort of thing. Although it is initially difficult to warm to what seems set to be an achingly pretentious piece of work, the film soon gains life when the first of the plagues begin. The apocalyptic feel of events is great, managing to create a asense of scale on a low budget (something Mackenzie has shown an ability to do before now) via the use of poignant montages which consist of archive footage. The nature of the epidemic is depicted as a huge outpouring of an emotion - grief, anger, and in one eerie scene, hunger - followed by the loss of one sense. This sets a number of filmmaking challenges for the director, such as how to depict a population losing their sense of smell, but he responds magnificently, finding creative solutions to these situations. Each of these scenes are very memorable, coming together to create a lyrical film which posits interesting questions about the characters' relationship - are they growing closer because of what is going on around them, or is this an exploration of how people adapt to change, rather than letting it defeat them?

The two leads give solid performances in roles which are well suited to them. Green may initially appear to be rather cold and unlikable, and indeed her character for the most part is just that, but the rare moments of levity between the two of them which occasionally coax a smile out of her feel special, giving us a subtle glimpse into these two people's developing feelings for each other. McGregor is typically high-class as Michael, giving real depth to his character, managing to instill sympathy into a man who we first meet kicking out a one-night stand because he "can't sleep with someone else in the bed". The supporting cast is packed with recognisable faces, including Ewan Bremner (great fun as Michael's colleague), Stephen Dillane as Susan's boss and Denis Lawson as the restaurant owner who neatly embodies the film's message of "life goes on" with his side story.

So, if audiences can get past the odd pretentious moment, and Kim Fupz Aakeson's script, which despite telling an emotionally complex story with real flair is sometimes frustratingly sparse - there are so many pauses that some scenes feel very overlong - Perfect Sense is a memorable and elegant piece of filmmaking which will have viewers gripped up until its enigmatic and powerful denouement.

Rating: 8/10