Being the movie fanatic that I am, there are not many movies that truly disturb me.

This one did.

My husband, Josh, and I are history buffs. Take a historical movie and add a touch of the taboo, such as the thought process of a serial killer in 18th-century France, and we're in. Plus, we watch so many movies (we don't have cable or satellite), that we are always looking for a different plot line.

Based on the best-selling novel by Patrick Süskind, the story surrounding the deadly obsession of a young man named Jean-Baptiste Grenouille in Paris due to an unnatural olfactory sense and the deep desire to "be somebody" in the world is both original and deep.

However, I think it was the extreme descriptions affecting all fives senses that greatly disturbed me, the first being the birth of Jean-Baptiste by a careless mother in a dirty Paris marketplace. When he didn't utter his first cry, she simply shoved the seeming corpse under the table in the mud with a pile of fish guts.

I realize this adds to the authenticity and grandeur of the film. If your stomach can hold up, the themes of the movie - poverty, social identity, human nature, curiosity, pride, envy, and blind ambition - just to name of few, are very interestingly played out.

Jean-Baptiste will stop at nothing to capture the scent he discovers from a beautiful redheaded young woman. Following her home from the market, he accidentally kills her and is perplexed that he cannot "preserve" her scent. Thus begins his quest to preserve and create the greatest scent the world has ever known. In doing so, he litters the French countryside with random killings.

The ending of the film threw me for a loop (which I love) and filled me with sympathy for Jean-Baptiste, who even though did not seem to have a respect for human life, was easy to identify with in his quest for belonging.

For more information on this film, visit http://www.perfumemovie.com/.

This Bernard Eichinger production, Tom Tykwer film, Constantin Film/VIP Medienfolnds 4 production, in co-production with NEF Productions and Castelao Productions was presented by DreamWorks Pictures and Constantin Film, and directed by Tom Tykwer. Screenplay by Andrew Birkin, Bernard Eichinger and Tom Tykwer.