Rent Perfect Sense (2011)
3.2 of 5 from 135 ratings
1h 29min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
- People around the world are being infected. First the grief, then smell is gone. As loss of one sense leads to another, people are stripped of the lives that they once knew. Chaos ensues whilst a young couple try to begin a relationship. Michael (Ewan McGregor) is a chef and Susan, (Eva Green) a scientist, their budding relationship must evolve around the virus before it takes them and everyone else over.
- Actors:
- Ewan McGregor, Eva Green, Lauren Tempany, Connie Nielsen, Denis Lawson, Stephen Dillane, Shabana Akhtar Bakhsh, Caroline Paterson, Malcolm Shields, Judith Anne Christie, Ewen Bremner, Richard Mack, Alastair Mackenzie, Anamaria Marinca, Juliet Cadzow, Tam Dean Burn, Ferosa Mackenzie, Luke McKenzie, Gilly Gilchrist, Barbara Rafferty
- Directors:
- David Mackenzie
- Producers:
- Gillian Berrie, Malte Grunert
- Narrated By:
- Katy Engels
- Writers:
- Kim Fupz Aakeson
- Studio:
- Arrow Films
- Genres:
- Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Thrillers
- Collections:
- Getting to Know..., Getting to Know: Ewan Mcgregor
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Reviews (1) of Perfect Sense
Doom and gloom with a hopeful ending - Perfect Sense review by RP
Oh no! The end of the world is nigh! First you lose your sense of smell, then your sense of taste, then your hearing, then your sight. Yet this is a love story (albeit with a sci-fi background) and despite the rather gloomy scenario there is a hopeful note to the ending: each of the previous sensual losses are preceded by grief, ravenous hunger or violence, but the final sensory loss - sight - is preceded by a warm, loving feeling.
The leading characters are well played by Ewan MacGregor and Eva Green and the relationship between them develops and builds as the epidemic progresses. Life continues as the epidemic runs its course and there is a strong hint that life will continue after the loss of sight. The film ends - somewhat abruptly - on a downbeat note but with unspoken hope for the future.
Well photographed and set in Glasgow, this is a well made low budget film made with British + Irish + Danish finance, so the rather lovely Connie Nielsen also gets a role. The film is commendably short and doesn't suffer from trying to stretch out 90 minutes worth of material to 2 hours as so many others do. The one thing I didn't like was the voiceover which I thought was a lazy way to tell the story - but perhaps that's understandable on such a tight budget.
I enjoyed 'Perfect Sense' and rate it at 4/5 stars. Highly recommended - but it may be too gloomy for some.
2 out of 3 members found this review helpful.
Critic review
Perfect Sense review by Melissa Orcine - Cinema Paradiso
The End Times is here and it’s manifested through a virus that cuts off your senses: of smell, taste, sight, and touch. One by one they disappear and yet, the residents of Glasgow continue to live on. They are slowly becoming remnants of their former selves and yet, they live.
Ironically, without taste they still manage to eat in the restaurant of Michael (Ewan McGregor) and as his next-door neighbor Susan (Eva Green), the scientist trying to figure out what has the world come to, they somehow fall in love. Michael is a womanizer, Susan is a loner – yes, they are a match made in apocalyptic heaven. ‘Perfect Sense’ directed by David Mackenzie, the auteur of provocative films ‘Hallam Foe’ and ‘Young Adam’, makes sense of this End Times filmic nonsense. And it’s surprisingly silly.
‘Perfect Sense’ can be a companion to Lars Von Trier’s other end-of-the-world drama ‘Melancholia’. Both films are uninterested in people running for their lives or fighting off crazed and virus-infected people; both ‘Perfect Sense’ and ‘Melancholia’ focus on the human aspect, specifically the emotional effect of the End Times on our already fragile state. But in ‘Perfect Sense’, the message is clear: All is fair in love and the apocalypse. Ewan McGregor and Eva Green jump into the bed of love – literally and figuratively – naked and unabashedly unapologetic of their emotions. Is it true love? Is it the hormones? Is it the End Times, hence, the sense of urgency to make love and not war with each other? ‘Perfect Sense’ presupposes that when all else fails, love prevails. But then again, is it really love?
This film will incite varied opinions from whoever views it. With the casting of Ewan McGregor and Eva Green, expectations are quite high; if not for their gorgeousness, ‘Perfect Sense’ would have faltered altogether. As a film, Glasgow looks both bleak and beautiful, the scope intimate as if that of a little town. The premise though interesting at first does not extend into a full-blown plot device till the end. The dreamy quality does not inspire instead makes you sleepy.