I don't know where to start, but it was quite an eye opener, since civilization began there are certain things that we take for granted, The basic things like our senses you will only realise it when you lose them.... as they say "Perhaps only in a world of the blind will things be what they truly are".. To understand the true beauty of life, you need to know what being alive is all about. After watching the movie I felt that it answered some of my questions... I think everyone should watch this movie... you might find it a bit slow phased but believe me it's a ride worth going for.... Ewan McGregor has done a marvellous job and so did Eva Green, the direction is flawless and it moves like poetry. Please watch this movie....
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tharun_mohan27 September 2011
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Even after watching it, I still don't know if it's brilliant or pathetic. It's something between "The tree of life" and "Blindness". For those who managed to watch it till the end, it will be definitely disturbing. Photography is amazing. Some disgusting scenes that could have been cut, some great ones that will make you remember your own past.I enjoyed specially Eva's "Blade Runner style" narration, with all those thoughts about love and the meaning of life. Maybe that's what the movie is all about, love is the only thing that makes sense in our lives. Anyway, at the end I realized that a movie who brings us such controversial feelings, is a far from being pathetic.
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kieronpconnolly14 April 2017I wanted to stop watching this movie after ten minutes. 'Ridiculous' I thought to myself. 'Who green lighted this?' I thought to myself. But ten minutes turned into eleven minutes, turned into more, and it was in the 'more' that I was to find myself watching something quite special: a carefully crafted tale of humanity that shows how perfectly imperfect we all are, and how glorious it is to just - be. And the last scene and that last couple of seconds? Nice.
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aecceity13 June 2019And that is to say that the film's soundtrack by Max Richter is perhaps my favourite soundtrack of any film, ever. Plenty of lovely things have been said about this film already and I only recently rewatched it after several years. But I've kept coming back to Richter's haunting melodies year after year.
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little-greenmen2 October 2013Susan, expert of infection is dumped by her boyfriend, so she spent lonely time. When she was working hard without thinking loneliness, she meets Michael who looks frivolous man. At first, she doesn't have interest in him, but they attracted each other gradually. One day, the illness that takes away the five senses broke out around the world suddenly. The people who infectious act the strange action, for instance, become furious, become too hungry and eat anything. What will they become?
I felt fear of this illness and people's behavior. Especially, people feel starvation, and they eat oils, soaps, animals, and other things what is not foods. The other scenes, people act the abnormal behave, and made me feel a fear. If this illness exists in this world actually and we become lose our senses, I would not know what to do. Susan feels happy with Michael at last, but their relationship about to be broken for many times, and it made me sad. However, we can see their bond.
After watching this film, I thought we have five senses is very happy. It told us the blessing of good health. -
luann-lewis2 January 2019I had seen this a few years ago but decided to watch it again after seeing Birdbox. There is a dystopian heaviness that hangs over each of those movies. This one is not exactly a thriller. It is a gut wrenching sci-fi love story. It is also a lyrical commentary on humanity. The music is lush, narration is poetic. The plot is nightmarish with a jarring edge of realism. It is not especially fast paced so those who want crossbows and zombie blood will not like it. This is the "thinking man's" end of the world type flick.
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Dar Star27 August 2023Don't watch this film if you are depressed.......it will only make things worse.
Ok now that that's done, the movie. It's not bad. It's well done. Ewan McGregor is one of my favorite actors and Eva Green is sexy as heck. They have very good chemistry and anytime the film features them and their relationship it works well. The premise is eerie in how it sort of depicts a Covid-19 like pandemic 10 years prior to the actual start of one. This one is obvious much worse in terms of human suffering IMO.
The Brits make very thought provoking sci-fi (think Children of Men) so you will be engaged in the plot. This one is a downer though, so be prepared. -
sjbriggs-19 December 2012There's no point rehashing what many of the other reviews say. I will tell you the one thing that matters: I've only ever cried over 3 movies, 1st when ET died (I was like 8), 2nd at the end of Ice Castles (again, I think I was 8 -- bad year), and finally at the end of this movie. I cried for 30 minutes. Then my wife wanted to watch the ending again because she missed something and I cried again. I don't know why this movie touched me so deeply but it did. You feel for the characters, you fear for what happens next. When the screen goes blank at the end, you fear for what will become of them. This was a powerful film and I highly recommend it.
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dellis_0122 December 2011The one thing I can say about this movie is that it is consistent with the pessimistic view of the human race when presented with something out of the ordinary. For all of the movies with apocalyptic themes, the only consistent factor is that humans are generally evil, and all we need is one small bump in the universe to turn us all into raving lunatics.
As I was watching, I was reminded of 'The Happening'. Wonderful idea of a world taking revenge on its inhabitants, and this movie could have been following the same theme, but it's done differently.
I love the progress of the character development, especially when Michael experiences the same selfish narcissistic tendencies (or so he thinks) in his new love interest that he has portrayed in the past. The blatant exposure of self when the loss of sensory perception shows how transparent and weak we actually are really brings a perfect sense of reality to those watching.
True, the character acting is superfluous, but with the actors available, what else would you expect (I was completely ready for Eva Green to die of consumption whilst Ewan MacGregor sings an Elton John tune at the top of his lungs... COME WHAT MAAAYYYY).
True, the plot has holes, but being caught up in the emotion of each of the tragedies, and anticipation of the arrival of the next, provides an escape from the rigors of perfection of plot (and, honestly, if they wanted to fill in all of the holes with Tom Clancy-ish type descriptions, the movie would have to be 4 hours long... this story could have been done as a one-hour special on TV).
This one was definitely worth the 88 minutes, and I would be open to watching it again. -
synevy30 December 2011I wouldn't want to say a lot about the story. Perfect Sense is a film you have to see, taste, smell, listen. It's not a Contagion - like movie, it's not a zombie one either, but it could definitely be a post - apocalyptic reality check.
We could, but we wouldn't want to imagine something like that happening, yet again "what if". How strong is the human heart and mind and how could we adapt in such a massive change? This film might suggest a hint.
Ewan McGregor plays a chef that somehow gets involved with Eva Green, a scientist. Then, all that matters is how these two characters cope with an epidemic that bursts, depriving people their senses.
I found this film quite enlightening, the performances intense, the music appropriate and, last but not least, the photography/ filming magnificent. Great work from the director David Mackenzie. The end was mind blowing, for me.
Keep an open mind, look at the big picture and it'll be worth your time. -
Movie_Muse_Reviews8 December 2012Of all the global outbreak and/or apocalyptic movies out there, "Perfect Sense" takes the cake for most unique premise: an epidemic with seemingly no scientific basis begins to rob people of their senses one sense at a time. For a romance, this is a rather broad way to explore the narrow topic of how important our sensory perception of the world ultimately is to love and happiness.
Making this small story that takes place within the context of a much bigger story is screenwriter Kim Fupz Aakeson's biggest challenge in her otherwise fascinating concept film. At regular intervals throughout this rather intimate character-centered story, we see lots of random footage of people all over the world succumbing to this syndrome set to voice-over narration explaining what's going on. It's kind of a buzz-kill in how jarring of a tonal change it creates, even if it does help us sort out the bizarre effects of the epidemic.
Director David Mackenzie struggles with what to do in these situations as a result. He's terrific at lapping up the chemistry between stars Ewan McGregor and Eva Green and creating some stirring moments in what's an otherwise quiet film, but the odd nature of the epidemic is almost too much to overcome.
The loss of each sense is preceded by some kind of an emotional episode, which is unusually and maybe even refreshingly poetic considering other sci-fi films centered on epidemics, but it takes awhile to get comfortable with the idea. For example, the second sense that people lose is taste, but prior to losing it, they experience several minutes of intense, ravenous hunger. We witness this through a montage showing all kinds of people (including our main characters) devouring anything they can get their hands on. Considering the soft, string- dominated tone of almost the entire film, this is like a scene out of a ridiculous B horror movie.
As you might be able to deduce, "Perfect Sense" is at its best when it focuses on McGregor and Green. An epidemiologist and a chef who discover each other in the early days of the epidemic, their lives are personally and professionally impacted by the loss of the senses (and in Green's character Susan's case, that there appears to be no way of understanding or stopping it). Susan gives in to McGregor's Michael after persistent advances, probably out of the communal sense of hopelessness this situation has instilled in everyone. Their relationship consists of mostly physical benefits, but they quickly forge an emotional attachment to one another.
Particularly intriguing is how Aakeson imagines society would react and adjust to the loss of each sense. The one interesting side plot of the entire film involves the restaurant Michael works for. His boss is ready to give up and shut the restaurant down with people having lost smell and taste, but he realizes the role food plays in creating a sense of comfort and normalcy, and the chefs begin to design dishes centered on textures. Because the loss of each sense is gradual, the film can take the time to imagine how society would compensate for each one.
By the time the third sense starts to go, you understand the pattern and "Perfect Sense" begins to make a lot more ... sense. At the same time, Susan and Michael's relationship has grown in equal measure, and we want to spend more time with them. The arc of their relationship feels abbreviated and considering the complexity displayed in McGregor and Green's chemistry, their highs and lows should probably be a bit more developed and complete.
Even if an entire movie wasn't necessarily needed to make the point, "Perfect Sense" still deserves credit for raising the question of how essential our sense are in leading happy lives and feeling love. Love is the intangible sense, the one that exists in some instinctive place we often refer to as the soul. Is that intuitive feeling enough for love? As with those who are already missing a sense, the loss of one makes the others stronger, but when there's nothing left? It's a great discussion topic and one you can't blame Aakeson for wanting to discover.
So even though the sci-fi context ends up being distracting and is a bit mishandled in certain instances when it comes to preserving the film's tone, there's enough to merit the attempt at this genre-hybrid exercise, if for nothing else than a couple moving romantic performances and some food ... for thought.
~Steven C
Thanks for reading! Visit moviemusereviews.com for more -
giggedyguy29 December 2011Yes, it's a romantic film. There's a lot of light-hearted stuff in the mix. But the concept of what inevitably will happen and the events mapping the way were frightening to me. I had a very present fear that the same thing could happen to me, silly as that sounds. I felt like I'd been punched in the stomach at the end.
My roommate and I watched this and Contagion on the same night. Compared to this, Contagion was a let down and almost boring--not denying that it was a really good film, it just wasn't as polished. Perfect Sense had so much STYLE and kept us glued to the screen. It was so entertaining! I think it's my favorite "world might be ending" movie of all time. I've never been so satisfied by a film of this genre before. -
Susan (Eva Green) is a scientist researching a global outbreak of a mysterious illness. Her boyfriend Michael (Ewan McGregor) is a chef. The illness first takes away people's sense of smell, then taste, then their hearing, and finally their sight. As they lose each sense, people experience an emotional outburst of some kind.
This movie is trying to take the apocalyptic scenario to a more poetic landscape. It does it with mixed results. There is no suspense or thrills. There is no emotional drama. It's interesting to see Michael's work being affected by each lost. But as a story of the end of the world, I don't think the survival of a restaurant is that important. I also didn't get too involved with the relationship. It seems to be a movie that was probably more compelling and more poetic on the page which is hinted at by the final narration. -
First of all: This movie has a lot going for it. Powerful imagery, good acting, generally good pacing, as has undoubtedly been discussed before. However, after watching it I was mainly annoyed by the gigantic plot-holes and strange idiosyncracies the movie contains. What happened to cell phones, sms, or even the internet? Why antagonize the viewer with the overly stupid behaviour exhibited by the main protagonists when the disease starts looming in on their relationship? And the final annoyance to tip the scales was the **SPOILER** superbly corny reunion scene, using so many over-used "near-miss" techniques, compounded by the characters' inability to hear, all of which could have been avoided by a single sms. These people were using cellphones before. ***/SPOILER***
So in the end the weird mix of realism on the one hand and a strangely unrealistic string of events didn't leave me convinced. The movie felt like the script writer had a few distinct scenes in mind which were to happen at various points in the script, and then somehow forced everything to fit together. This has NEVER worked well. A good scene that is made to happen by contriving some obscure constellation of events ends up just as contrived as the rest of the construction.
***SPOILER*** And finally the movie leaves you with a profound feeling of "So what?". It's really an apocalypse film that focuses on dealing with the inevitable consequences, but the final outcome really IS the end of the world, in spite of the final words of the narrator. It would have been more powerful if the movie had ended with a less catastrophic final phase for the disease. As is, you are now left to imagine how everyone stumbles around until they inevitably starve. ***/SPOILER***
The only way this movie sort of works is as a strange moral piece on taking things for granted and coping with the loss of them. -
ImraanMohammed_29 December 2019Not a movie. Not a story. But something that is more greater and most crucial..
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darkfabric29 November 2015The log-line of "Perfect Sense" (directed by David Mackenzie) makes the movie sound gimmicky at best. "A chef and a scientist fall in love as an epidemic begins to rob people of their sensory perceptions?" Not only did I see this description as a harbinger of gooey sentimentality, it also suggested that a cheap trick would be deployed to trap me in it. Yet with Eva Green and Ewan McGregor leading the cast, I figured I could get stuck in a lot worse goop.
Turns out very little of this movie is logged in that inadequate line, and rarely have I been so glad to be wrong.
Susan (Green) is an epidemiologist working on this sense-subtracting disease that begins with a few cases and ends up a pandemic. Michael (McGregor) is a talented chef at a high-end restaurant that shares with Susan's apartment an alleyway in which they meet. Both characters are self-admitted a-holes who fall in unlikely love while this affliction deconstructs their very personhood (along with everyone else's on the planet). I don't need to tell you to balk at my description if I've made the movie sound less watchable than the log-line has. Yet I'll instist as well that you'll be missing out if, based on anyone's words, you dismiss this movie entirely.
"Perfect sense" is a gem that increases in value the longer you look at it. "And what are human beings really?" it seems to ask. "A number of perceptual senses linked to a narrow spectrum of underlying emotions?" That's one suggestion it communicates before adding: "You gotta love that." Prior to losing each sense, victims of this disease experience an uncontrollable surge of emotion: despair before losing smell, ravenousness before taste, rage before hearing and, ushering in the loss of sight, all-encompassing love and hope. Darkness at last consumes all victims while blindly and silently they cling to loved ones whom they can also neither smell nor taste. Left with only the ability to feel the person beside them, all await the final subtraction (touch) that can only render them lifeless.
Two of the many interesting things about this apocalyptic movie are the disease that sense-by-sense disassembles people, and the adaptive measures people take in order to cope with their ensuing condition. Those who can no longer taste begin to describe food in terms of texture, consistency or with onomatopoeia while artists attempt to reintroduce or at least remember flavour through music and poetry. Synesthesia becomes a short-term savior you might say
Though the movie provides many snacks for thought, at heart it's a love story between Susan and Michael. Remember that, because it's refreshingly easy to forget. Does their love burgeon as a result of the apocalypse? Or is it simply the proximity of his restaurant and her apartment that brings them together? Who's to say? Neither do we know what causes the disease. Is it environmental? Manmade? Aliens? We never find out. So not only are we protected from heavyhanded didacticism, we're also shielded from any cornball yarn about love transcending space and time. The more existential and less literal question we're left with as a result is: Seriously, folks, what else of any significance is there to life besides love?
I'm reminded of "Poem" by Al Purdy, particularly its last line: "...there is nothing at all I can do except hold your hand and not go away." The sense of helplessness Purdy conveys when the narrator tries to console an ill loved one, a time when nothing can be done for someone other than to provide a loving presence, is nothing if not touching to the reader because of its understated, pragmatic truth: love, whatever magic it's not, sustains us. Similarly, "Perfect Sense" isn't saying that love intensifies as the disease progresses. It isn't claiming that with all distractions removed love can be seen for what it is, all-important. Thanks for sparing us those sentiments by the way. Some of what this movie does say is that love, nurturing, care, warmth, whatever you want to call it, as we slowly fall apart, is the one thing we can still manage to express with each, however limited, piece of ourselves we have left--and right up until removal of our last sense snuffs us out.
Love also happens to be sorely needed in perilous times like these. And if that's gimmicky then so are we. -
welhof117 April 2021This film was terrifying, amazing, exhausting, depressing and a whole lot of other things. I've never seen anything like it. It's hard to describe what I feel. Very few movies touch me in a way this one did. Wow.
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I love Ewan McGregor and I like Eva Green. For that reason alone, I should have liked this movie. And it was good. Great acting, nice editing, a deeply emotional soundtrack, an intense feeling of loss and discovery. But I didn't. I had the same feeling as with von Trier's Melancholia: what is the point in showing a bunch of people feeling all kinds of stuff, if there is nothing anybody can do?
Now, that I think about it, there were always movies like this in cinema, about people caught in a situation and feeling something profound. Only now though, when science fiction and fantasy are a lot more mainstream, do we get the scenarios where something global happens, like an epidemic or something destroying the planet. The main idea is the same, though, and just as lacking satisfaction for people like me, who want to see themselves in the characters and actually be able to change something.
Bottom line: my wife liked the movie, she resonated with the deep feelings evoked in the film; I saw no point in watching some folks doing nothing but floating in the current until they crashed, doing nothing but admiring the water and feeling alive for some reason. If you liked Melancholia, you will probably like this one as well. -
Fideist7126 January 2011When I read the synopsis for _Perfect Sense_, I was expecting an apocalyptic romance. I was wrong. Such a description is too neat. This is more than escapist entertainment. It is an experience to be savored.
Its story is deceptively simple. It weaves a richer fabric than any casual touch will detect. Those who think its central device capricious (the disease and its development) give themselves too much credit for discerning the logic of their own lives. An illness may seem to follow no obvious or satisfying plot, but who can say whether any "misfortune" fails to follow a narrative too subtle for the prejudice of those who feel injured by it? Those who require every story to have a tidy, forensic resolution, with an indictable perpetrator for every ordeal, on whom they can unleash their outrage in order to achieve "closure," are the victims of their own narrow interpretation. Most pain is not conspiracy. The shared affliction of this story is poetic metaphor; however, like most good art, this film is about its characters, not its literary devices.
The cast's performances are not only authentic, they are illuminating; particularly Ewan McGregor's and Eva Green's central couple. Were they mere victims, their story would be hopeless tragedy. Instead, theirs is the account of an ordinary and vulnerable man and woman with extraordinary resilience, who attack, then embrace each other, stumbling over their circumstances as they learn to transcend them.
**A Brief Response to ArizWldcat's One-star Review**
If those at the premiere who asked questions after the screening (during the Q&A) are a representative sample of the audience, few of Mr. Mackenzie's viewers got the "point" of his film. One person asked the director what message or meaning he hoped we, his audience, would take from his film. He looked nonplussed at this question. He responded that the viewer had to answer that for himself.
It seems that Mr./Ms. ArizWldcat was one of those who expected this film to be easily categorized and to reaffirm a specific, pre-determined view of the world, such as a feel-good romance or a psychological thriller. The guy gets the girl and they save the world in the process, all portrayed through a predictably formulaic sequence of events. Everyone lives happily ever after. By those prerequisites, we would also be forced to give _Hamlet_ or _Citizen Kane_ one out of ten stars.
_Perfect Sense_ is a film whose "point" is not to make its audience comfortable or to provide the adrenaline buzz of a "thriller." Its purpose is to portray authentic human experience in an impossible situation. It did so admirably. It is one of the most hopeful films I have ever seen. -
mbazhome5 September 2020Never heard of this movie, kinda scary to watch during an actual pandemic because it's about a pandemic, their illness freaked me out
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bonzybino18 January 2012Perfect Sense turns out to be a flavor-rich drama with absorbing performances from the lead pair Ewan McGregor & Eva Green. And I would categorize it as a perfectly made scifi drama, alongside the likes of Eternal Sunshine & Children of Men.
The narrative style and the evolving storyline makes it an enjoyable drama. It doesn't shoulder the burden of a beginning or an end, the genesis of an epidemic or an apocalyptic vision. Instead its all depicted in the background, thus making the movie enlivening. And never ever did i get a dark vibe, for with each phase it moves on just the way its shown in the movie. And then finally we don't pity, rather, we empathize and be part of that world.
Thankfully, we don't have surreal gimmickry or plot viagra's in the movie - as its common and indispensable in scifi & romantic flicks - which makes it artistic and cinematic. Loved every bit of this extraordinary movie experience.. :) -
Perfect Sense (2011)
Take a whole new end of the world idea, one that's preposterous and chilling, and layer a naturally "perfect" romance into it, and you have this ambitious, lovely movie. You surely must suspend your disbelief—like when the blind people cross the tracks and step perfectly over the rails, or when everyone succumbs to a symptom simultaneously—but that's part of what makes the movie work. It takes chances, never loses touch with its heart, and has two terrific leads holding it all together.
The first of these is the ever interesting Ewan McGregor, who seems to zero in on slightly offbeat semi-big budget films. That is, he's not doing indie movies (yet), but he sometimes moves through a less obvious zone of really compelling projects with high production values, like "Trainspotting," "Moulin Rouge!," and "Cassandra's Dream." So he has a likable (some would say lovable) quality here as a regular guy, a serious chef who's selfish in relationships.
Until he meets, by chance, the other lead, Eva Green, who is distant and reluctant and gradually won over by this sweetness of this man. At first he seems like a player, but they both realize there is something special going on. And what a time to fall in love, just when the world is falling apart.
Oh, you want to know what goes wrong with everyone, worldwide? I'm not telling. Even the first instance is a nice surprise (I hadn't read any blurbs). There is a lightness to the terrifying truth of it, and to the lack of fighting back (even though Green plays an epidemiologist). It's a little like "Children of Men" in that sense, where a malady strikes and it goes worldwide and there is not clue how that could possibly be true.
Because, in fact, it's not about that, exactly. Or it uses those events to make you see what matters from the point of view of the protagonists.
The reason it fails to quite transcend, despite having all the elements to do so, is partly that the answer (to what matters in life) we already know. The movie confirms it beautifully—I recommend watching it—but there is possibly an emptiness of purpose that gets in the way. And the other plot, the illness spreading in stages through the world, is left alone, except for how it affects the afflicted. Which is everyone. -
LunarPoise30 July 2011Of all the senses, smell most strongly connects us to memory and the past. Taste locks us into the present. Hearing and sight help us navigate through the world. It is touch, however, that connects us intimately to each other.
"Perfect Sense' presents a pre-apocalyptic event, the loss, on a global scale, of the senses one by one. Michael and Susan are flawed individuals, a chef and a doctor, carrying their scars and regrets through Glasgow's world of bright young things, two individuals who find each other just as the world loses everything.
Eva Green as Susan is instantly charismatic, a strong-willed, demanding woman who sets high standards because she knows she deserves it. At the same time, she fears no one can live up to her demands. McGregor gets to test his range as Michael, going through women like short-orders in his kitchen, with just as much attention and interest. When he meets his match in Susan, he has to face that he has found what he has been looking for all his life, and now a pandemic will take it away. His loss proves the most profoundly moving element of the film.
McKenzie films Glasgow in glory and decay, making wonderful use of water and reflected light as he did in Young Adam. The hard jar of the camera on a bicycle sans steadicam is a brave choice, but it draws your attention to visual sense and foreshadows the losses about to fall. Before each sense is lost there is a brief intense burning of that sense. This is most effectively portrayed in a canny use of sound when Susan stops the car, winds down the window, and the cacophony of sound in our world, starting with church bells and extending to screeching parrots, rushes in on the two silent, fearful lovers.
There is one missed beat, when Susan takes the huff because of what Michael says in his virus-induced rage before losing a sense. With the world coming to an end all around you, it stretches credulity to think she'd throw a strop over some bilious comments - especially as a medic. But it does set up a beautiful denouement, the lovers desperately searching for reconciliation as the world gradually, then suddenly, stops functioning.
This is a moving film, a thought-provoking one, about love, connection, and all the things we take for granted. An antidote to bombastic, finger-wagging fare such as Day After Tomorrow, it earns your tears at several moments. Quite possibly Mackenzie's best film to date. -
lveddie4 September 2012I can't highly recommend this movie though I can understand why the two leads wanted to make it; the challenge of conveying emotions without much dialog had to be irresistible. But if you want to see an actor's movie twisted into a mess with too many convenient scenes and a message of hope that is buried among the overwhelming despair, this is your picture. It's genre is mislabeled, though. No way is it science fiction since there is no science of any kind in it and it is not set in any recognizable future. It is a love story about two lost souls who find themselves just at the boat is sinking. The pleasure, such as it is, in watching it, is in seeing the small details that flesh out this dying world.
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There's always a risk calling your film something like 'Perfect Sense'; because, sooner or later, someone's going to point at the Emperor's New Clothes and go: "Perfect mince, more like!" Especially in Glasgow.
Let's just say there's nothing perfect about this film; it's unintentionally funny; it utterly fails to make anything of its central location; it is embarrassingly pretentious; and it is horrendously scripted and acted. Except for a few small scenes, Ewan McGregor relies on his goofy smile to earn him audience sympathy, while Eva Green's one-note, we've-seen-it-all- before performance is just the wrong side of arrogance, like she feels she's superior to everyone else in the cast. I don't, for one minute, actually believe she's an epidemiologist.
The central conceit of the film is, of course, absolutely ridiculous -- an inexplicable epidemic is gradually depriving humanity of its senses, starting with smell and taste, then going straight for hearing and sight. (What happened to touch, one wonders?) This isn't, in itself, a problem, except that any suspension of disbelief is undermined by the film choosing to push this medical nonsense to the fore, rather than hide it behind some believable characterisation, recognisable plot or even some energetic hand-waving. Instead, we're left with a snail's-paced, condescending, sledge-hammer meditation on how we've all lost touch with each other. Or something like that.
The worst thing about this film isn't all the talent and money that went into its production; it's the question of what has gone wrong with David Mackenzie? Young Adam and Hallam Foe were startling and innovative cinematic works. Now it would seem he's had a narrative lobotomy. And whoever told him it would a good idea to strap his camera to a bicycle really should be shot. They invented steady cam for a reason.