irector Tom Tykwer proved himself proficient at working moviegoers' senses with his wildly popular film, "Run Lola Run" (1998), a rush of a movie that kept viewers' blood pumping for almost its entire 81 minute duration. Now, Tykwer manages to evoke an olfactory sensation with his dark, dark film "Perfume: The Story of a Murderer."

Perfume is a visually lush story of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, a man whose superhuman sense of smell leads him to a life obsessed with capturing and cataloging scent. Based on the best-selling German novel by Patrick Suskind - which had directors Stanley Kubrick and Tim Burton salivating over it, and Kurt Cobain writing a song about it - the film is an epic narrated by an excellent John Hurt in the English version (Otto Sander does the German version).

Set in 18th century France, "Perfume" is a full-on costume drama with powdered wigs for the men and cleavage-pumping bodices for the women. Little-known British actor Ben Whishaw is the title sniffer, Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, born to an unloving mother in 18th century Paris in the most foul of conditions; she literally squeezes him out and then tosses him into rotting garbage, assuming he's stillborn.

Unwanted and tossed aside, Grenouille is shipped off to be raised in pitiless French orphanages and punishing workhouses. The boy enters adolescence with no capacity for sympathy or compassion. He cares about others only if they offer an interesting scent.