Title – Perfect Sense (2011)

Director – David Mackenzie (Young Adam)

Cast – Ewan McGregor, Eva Green, Ewen Bremmer

Plot – Imagine a world where human senses slowly begin to disappear, Perfect Sense offers up a unique take on this possibility. Chef Michael (McGregor) and scientist Susan (Green) are two people caught up in the epidemic and caught up in unusual relationship.

“First, the terror. And then a moment of hunger. This is how the sense of taste disappears from our world. They don’t even have time to give the disease a name.”

Review by Eddie on 25/07/2013

Not many movies in recent memory have offered up a more intriguing and frankly scary proposition than the one at the centre of Perfect Sense, David Mackenzie’s unorthodox pandemic tale. What would life be like with the loss of our human senses? It’s a question worthy of a movie and a question which by the end of Perfect Sense remains largely unanswered.

Mackenzie seems far too preoccupied with scenes set in Michael’s work kitchen or Susan’s apartment antics to produce a movie that captures the idea of the plot in a fitting way. There is nothing wrong with doing a big idea movie on a small scale (see Monsters or Primer as examples of a successful job) but the people we are forced to spend time with while an amazing concept flashes by are just not that interesting or indeed likeable.

As a previous Mackenzie collaborator McGregor is an eminently likeable on screen presence but here gives one of his more forgettable performances as supposedly roguish and charming chef Michael and Green as scientist Susan falters in all her more dramatic scenes bringing the film down with her acting failings. The best character driven scenes are provided by supporting acting Bremmer as Michael’s colleague James, Bremmer offering up a thoroughly more interesting character in meagre screen time which is never a good sign for a film when a support out plays the main actors.

Perfect Sense is not a complete missed opportunity however; there are some truly original and somewhat bizarre ideas and scenes in the film that hint at what a classic tale this could have been. Moments of sadness and madness throughout the film mixed with some neat visuals and score provide some real genuine goose bumps that only a well-made film can provide.

Perfect Sense deserves props for doing something different in a way that does not confirm to the norm. It will undoubtedly get you thinking and provide ample discussion when watched in a group; it’s a shame that it also quite fairly went unnoticed on release due to an overall sense of mediocrity and really there is no sense in arguing with the facts. Perfect Sense is far from perfect yet has enough interesting ideas to warrent a viewing.

2 and a half bars of soap out of 5