My Somber Valentine: Perfect Sense (2011)

Susan (Eva Green) is a researcher who has put her life on hold in order to focus on her career. Soon enough, her laboratory ends up in the eye of the storm when people inexplicably start losing their sense of smell. It seems to be an epidemic of sorts but Susan and her team have nothing to prove or disprove this theory.

Meanwhile, Michael (Ewan McGregor) is a chef working at the restaurant adjacent to Susan’s apartment. Whilst out on a cigarette break, he starts chatting to her and eventually they start going out together. Michael has emotional problems of his own: he cannot sleep with someone else in the bed. However, Susan seems to be the exception.

The mysterious epidemic persists. People are somehow coping but the attrition is happening too quickly for them to have enough time to adapt. Against this scenario, Michael and Susan are doing their damnedest to keep alive the best thing that’s ever happened to them.

Perfect Sense is simultaneously inspiring and exhausting to watch. On the one hand it is uplifting to see how the community adjusts to this terrible epidemic; on the other it is nerve-wrecking, knowing fully well that as soon as one ordeal is dealt with, there is yet another more terrifying one waiting in line.

One notably moving scene involves the restaurant staff agonising over which spices enhance most the flavour of particular foods, a stratagem they devise to counteract the lost sense of smell. It is a huge achievement that brings the whole community closer together; however we are very much aware that this is going to be short lived.

Despite the stamina, there is so much that the human spirit can take, especially when faced with dramatic circumstances of this proportion that are happening in quick succession. It is Michael and Susan’s big test.

Susan lives on her own and the only interaction she has is with work mates and her sister, whose life she envies. Similarly, Michael is unable to commit himself, flitting from one meaningless fling to another. Both of them are emotionally deprived. The difference between the two is that whilst Michael lives in the realm of the senses (his one night stands, the fact that he is a chef, a smoker), Susan despoils herself even of this charade.

Something shifts when the two of them start seeing each other. They immediately feel comfortable together, and even though Susan remains the more prudent of the two, their relationship seems to be going somewhere. It could be that they finally found a soul mate, or, given the circumstances, they decided to throw caution to the wind and give it all they’ve got. Whatever the reason, they have something real going on.

When their senses start to disappear, Susan and Michael must more and more rely on the feelings they have towards each other. The game, so to speak, is up. They are cornered and they must confront the very essence of their being. The physical bonding was a start but now they need to invest much much more than that.

Director: David Mackenzie
Starring: Ewan McGregor, Eva Green, Connie Nielsen , Ewen Bremner
Screenplay: Kim Fupz Aakeson

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