Perfect Sense is a
movie about a global epidemic that causes the end of the world. Unlike the recent crop of apocalyptic
films, though, Perfect Sense doesn't
need zombies, nuclear fallout or an ancient Central American calendar to get
the job done. Perfect Sense is about a condition that slowly desensitizes the
human body. And I mean that
literally: characters lose the sense of hearing, tasting, and sight. It's a
pretty big leap that director David Mackenzie asks us take.
And
really, your enjoyment of the film is probably going to be roughly equal to how
much you buy desensitization as a plague or apocalyptic agent. The film is pretty to look at, features
really great music and McGregor and Green pretty well fit the bill. One of the
issues I had with the film was the use of voice-over to account for portions of
the film. Sure, it speeds up the action (after all, who wants to see an 88-minute
movie about desensitization that only gets through two senses?), but it also
makes the story feel bookmarked or abbreviated. That wouldn't be a huge deal,
either, except the humans already react way too reasonably to the loss of their
senses. McGregor plays a cook who loses his sense of taste and just shrugs it
off?!
The
film works as a romantic thriller of sorts and, ultimately, I recommend it for
the sheer beauty of Glasgow and Mackenzie's fine visuals. But Perfect Sense could have been a lot
more. As is, it's just a bit above average.
