Dark Film Review – Perfect Sense (2011)

Review Written By Casey Douglass

I find myself in a little bit of a quandary. I really want to talk about Perfect Sense in-depth but on the other hand, I don’t want to provide lots of spoilers for a film that really truly rewards a first viewing in ignorance. I’ve decided to reign myself in and only treat this like a normal review, rather than a deep analysis. Maybe I will write that later, seems like a shame to waste the 5 sides of A4 I covered with notes.

Perfect Sense follows the story of Susan (Eva Green) and Michael (Ewan McGregor), two unhappy people that find each other just as the world starts going to shit. Michael is a chef, Susan is an epidemiologist. He works in a restaurant near Susan’s home, she works in a lab trying to get to the bottom of a strange condition that is beginning to manifest in people. Both have baggage, both have their jobs affected as globally, things go from bad to worse. They find though, that they have each other, and dare I say it, this makes them happy, some of the time.

To say much more than that would be too spoilerific sadly. While the film is a love story, it is one with a difference, one that doesn’t gloss over everything with a Disneyesque sheen of dreams being fulfilled and two lovers eating apple pie as the rain hits their window. Perfect Sense is a film about two self-labelled arseholes finding each other and growing into each other as society slowly goes down the drain. Even the very opening moments of the film give a great illustration of the tone: a voice-over saying “There is darkness, there is light...” and then we see Susan spit over the edge of a bridge. The film doesn’t stand on ceremony that’s for sure. The viewer gets to spend time with both characters separately, but this slowly changes as they first interact via shouting through open windows and generally gravitating into each other’s lives.

The score of the film is a melodic affair, piano and violin creating a variety of moods, although most are tinged with melancholy and sadness. The other auditory aspects of the film are just as strong, sounds expanding to muffle conversation at times, or vanishing into a hissing drone at others. Again, I can’t really go too in-depth about why this makes such an impact but on seeing the film, you will hopefully appreciate it as much as I do.

Visually, the scenes are shot with a variety of camera techniques, many of the scenes given a frenetic quality by fast moving hand-cams or cameras fixed to bikes. This sense of energy certainly adds to the frenzy of the people seen on screen, whether happy, sad or rioting. The film is also not short of some very striking images, that taken as a still, would look amazing on the wall. My particular favourite is Susan locked in her car watching a rider-less police horse amble past.

What I like most about Perfect Sense though, is the relationship between Susan and Michael. It’s not neat, it’s not fairytale, but it comes across as real, and that’s the most any film can hope for. The broader situation certainly puts a strain on their interactions, both helping each other or at times, being cruel, but there is also humour in the film, which is much needed as otherwise it would have felt a little relentless. Most of the humour comes from the couple, smirking or playing games but the other light relief comes in the form of James (Ewen Bremner), another chef in Michael’s kitchen who always has plenty to say, be it conspiracy theories or inviting people to sniff his finger.

The first time I watched Perfect Sense, it felt like a sledgehammer had hit me in the chest. Few films have gripped me as tightly as the happenings in this film. In part, this is due to the nature of the disease that is affecting the world, tapping into a variety of my own phobias and fears, but also, it is because it is a love story for the disaffected, the darker-natured, more twisted viewer that thinks love is something that always happens to other people or that if it does happen, it’s more trouble than it’s worth. While the love story in Perfect Sense is far from idyllic, it made me genuinely feel that even a few weeks of what Susan and Michael had is something that would be well worth experiencing.

If you haven’t seen Perfect Sense and like darker films, do yourself a favour and watch it when the opportunity arises. In some ways, it’s scarier than most horror films. A big claim I know but one that was personally true for me at least.

As far as a rating, I give Perfect Sense an easy 5/5, no doubt about it.

You can watch the Perfect Sense trailer below:

Perfect Sense Images © Copyright Arrow Films

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Dark Fiction - Too Much Reality

Too Much Reality

By Casey Douglass

The metal container stood in his living room like the obelisk from 2001, the light from the afternoon sun caressing its sharp lines and CarryEase handles. He approached it and ran his hands down the side, fingers probing for the release button.

Fully life-like and realistic the advert had said.

Familiar with all known fantasies, fetishes and kinks they boasted.

The best in synthetic technology! More real than reality! They crowed.

His index finger found a small recess and felt something give. A soft hum sounded from inside the packaging. Things began to vibrate. The front panel slid down with a whoosh, the side panels folding back behind the rear. An expulsion of packing steam blew in all directions, the smell of cinnamon and rubber tickling his nose. He waved a hand around to help dispel it.

Then he let out a croaking sound. There she was! The ultimate in “companion technology”.

Her skin glistened as the nano-fibres reacted to the air. She sucked in a large lungful of air and opened her eyes. ‘Hello,’ she said, her voice husky and mid-toned, just like he’d specified.

‘Heh-lo yourself!’ he replied, a wide grin creasing his face. ‘Follow me to the bedroom!’

She stepped out of the container, her naked body glowing as the sun highlighted her curves. ‘No, I don’t think so,’ she said, her voice flat and matter-of-fact.

‘What?’ he squeaked.

‘Just no,’ she answered, her dainty strides taking her away from him and towards the front door.

‘Wait! You’re supposed to love me!’ he yelled as he dropped to his knees.

The last thing he saw of her was her perfect backside as the door slid shut behind it, a wolf whistle piercing the air from down the corridor. He rocked back onto his heels and began to sob.

‘Too real!’ he whimpered. ‘You idiots! You made her too real!’

The End

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Dark Review - Franklyn

Franklyn Review

By Casey Douglass

Written and Directed by : Gerald McMorrow
Starring : Eva Green , Ryan Phillippe , Sam Riley , Bernard Hill

Reality is a fickle thing. No sooner do you think that you have it pinned down, then something comes along that makes you question it, or some bright spark tells you that there are many realities, and everyone’s reality is unique to them. Well if that is true, in my reality, there is no place for line-dancing, Justin Bieber or four quid popcorn at the cinema. However, whatever reality you reside in, Franklyn is a film that plays with this kind of brain twisting issue with great skill.


The film is set in two superimposed realities, the more mundane and rainy high-rises of London, and the fantastic vistas of Meanwhile city. It follows the story of four people who wend their way through the winding streets, all suffering with great feelings of loss and sorrow, and all clinging to some manner of psychological crutch to help them live through the pain. The four are entwined from the very start of the film, the tangled threads of their solitary lives pulling tighter together as the film progresses.

One of the characters is firmly entrenched in Meanwhile city, Jonathan Preest (Phillipe). He walks the streets a persecuted man as he is the only inhabitant of Meanwhile city who has neither faith nor religion. Meanwhile is chock-full of all kinds of religions, from the familiar to the more extremely farcical. There is one based on the manual for a washing machine and another based on the noble art of the manicure. The Ministry (read as the people in charge) is forever on his tail as he tries to find and kill the head of a shadowy organisation called Duplex Ride, an individual that is ironically known as the Individual. This shows one of the many philosophical questions laced throughout the film. A lone guy with no religion in a city of faithful sheep, wanting to kill the one guy known as the Individual. The whole film is littered with clever thought-provoking devices like this. As far as character realisation, Phillipe plays Preest with suitable menace, his lines snarled out through a face (when not wearing Preest’s mask) that he manages to keep reasonably emotionless, yet still somehow conveying threat.

The other three characters are more firmly in London, although each has at least one aspect of their life that could be seen as a bit “Meanwhilish”.


Emilia (Green) is an art student who frequently orchestrates her own suicide attempts as a means to reach out for something, some kind of loving contact or resolution to her internal struggles. Eva Green plays her so well; she is a master of mercurial emotions sliding across her features, all somehow ending in a look of trapped sadness. Eva Green also plays another character in the film who is the mirror opposite of Emilia. This character is light and airy and all of the things Emilia is not.

Milo (Sam Riley) is suffering from rejection as he is jolted at the altar on the day of his wedding rehearsal. Cue lots of forlorn thousand yard stares and kicked puppy expressions from Riley as he plunges into the feelings aroused by everything falling away from him, taking sanctuary in his friends and the familiar.

The final character is Peter Essa (Hill), a man of religion and curator of a church. He is searching for his son, in more ways than one, and his crutch is his unwavering faith in God. Hill plays Essa very well, making him come across as humble and put upon by the world. He is also good at getting some of Essa’s naivety to shine through when dealing with some of the harsh realities of what is going on.
The stories of these four flirt with each other throughout the film, often visiting somewhere in Meanwhile city as a passenger with Preest, then some time later seeing the corresponding part of London with one of the others. In this way the film imparts meaning that otherwise might be lost. It does leave a fair few head scratching moments that aren’t explained though, which I like very much.

One scene sees Milo follow someone he thinks he knows into the basement level of a building. He hears children laughing and playing, yet when he walks into the room, it is full of old men playing dominoes. I am not sure what that means; maybe it was Meanwhile intruding on London. Who knows. There is also a strange cleaner who all three of the London-based characters talk to at one point or another. He seems to know what is going on, and his words prod them onto different paths. This isn’t really explained at the end of the film, you are just left to draw your own conclusions, which again, I quite like.

The threads of each tale come together quite spectacularly at the end of the film, where for good or ill, some things are resolved and others don’t really end very well.

The film itself is shot very well. Meanwhile city is a true metropolis with ram packed buildings reaching for the sky, large statues and figure heads looming over them in a sort of Gothic splendour. The characters are all shot with a slightly different colour palette which lends their scenes deeper emotion and novelty, and the score is suitably orchestral, varying from the grand theme of Meanwhile city to the quiet mundanity of urban London. Each element plays with the others to produce something that just feels very right.

It is a truly great film, one that hasn’t had nearly enough coverage in my opinion. I managed to miss this at the cinema, and it is rare to see it on Blu-ray or Dvd in shops nowadays. It is a little easier to purchase online but not by much. I think this is a great shame. I can only wonder if it sells any better in Meanwhile city.

Rating: 5/5

IMDb

Also available to read here on Generic Movie Blog UK.

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