Catching up

I had a catch-up weekend: a bit of tidying up, a bit of laundry, a bit of admin-stuff at home, and also catching up on movies as I haven't managed to get to the cinema much recently. Yesterday I saw Ratatouille, which was just adorable. Pixar at their best. I tend not to like mice and rats much (living with mice running round your studio flat does that to a girl) but I found Remy, the hero of Ratatouille, utterly wonderful. Okay, he's a cartoon rat, but he was very ratty while being very cute. A funny, warm, beautifully-produced film.

Today, after the rowing club's open day (erg races on the balcony as the wind was too strong to row), I went to see Perfume: The Story of a Murderer at the lovely Embassy. Definitely my favourite cinema. It's a compelling, disturbing, intriguing movie with a silly ending. Annoyingly silly actually, as I think it detracts from the rest of the film. It's adapted from Patrick Suskind's novel of the same name, which I read ages ago and seem to remember enjoying, about a young man with an incredible sense of smell. Somehow the smells do come over on screen, through gorgeous cinematography. Ben Whishaw as the protagonist Grenouille is amazing - doesn't have much dialogue, but his performance is very physical and he doesn't need words really. Good supporting roles from Alan Rickman and Dustin Hoffmann, lovely setting, and a really creepy story as Grenouille goes about finding the perfect scent and distilling it - let's just say he thinks the perfect scent belongs to a girl. Highly recommended, although it does lose points for the ending (I think Suskind is to blame).