film review: perfect sense

Perfect Sense is the ideal love catalyst for our emotionally repressed generation.  It’s rare to find a film that effectively questions the reality of love, humanity and illness, but this film orchestrates all of these elements perfectly.

Ewan Mcgregor and Eva Green combine their superb acting talents to portray the lives of two unlikely lovers, Michael and Susan.  Michael, a casual cook with impeccable taste in his food meets the mysterious and charismatic epidemiologist Susan.  They seem like any other infatuated couple, except they’re not. Michael and Susan are both in the process of watching  as a viral epidemic quickly robs the world of its five senses: touch, taste, smell, sound and sight. As the couple fall helplessly in love, the pandemic continues and we are thrown into a vat of compassion for our two protagonists, who begin their own, personal agonising journey through sensory loss.

One particularly tragic scene occurs in the bathtub, where we see the two lovers  (Michael and Susan) eating shaving foam and soap and remarking on how soft it feels in their mouths.  Since they’ve now lost their taste buds, they adapt in the only way possible.

The film alternates between a tender, love story and the very poignant sub-plot of what it would mean to lose everything that makes us human and how we adapt to such devastating change. It showcases the chaotic forces of violence, sex, grief, love and ultimately, what we are faced with when there is nothing left but our own breath.

The film asks us to ask ourselves…How much do we take for granted? And after losing everything, do we still have the capacity to love another human being? After watching Perfect Sense, the first thing I did was inhale the fresh air, really enjoy the taste of my sushi and took a moment out to say “ Thank you.”

Any film that emotionally effective deserves five stars, don’t you think?

By Sophia Anna