Perfect Sense is paced well enough to give due time to the failing senses and the emotions that might accompany them. With a tinge of sci-fi, the mysterious disease that becomes a pandemic is left totally unexplained beyond shots of dictators and extremists whilst narration explains how different groups believe it to be caused by different ideologies. This would be acceptable where the actual delivery of the symptoms not so patently absurd. Having staggered the onset for loss of smell across his fictitious world, Mackenzie brings on loss of taste, seemingly all at once for everyone, to laughable results. He does make pause for some gratuitous nudity and sex scenes that feel like an attempt at tasteful titillation for the sheer sake of it.
Once the senses of smell and taste have abandoned mankind and the case is made for moving on and living life, the film begins to feel like some underhanded propaganda tool for big tobacco as Mike and Susan extol the virtues of still being able to enjoy a cigarette. It's only following the loss of the senses that smoking doesn't deteriorate that humans around the world truly begin to panic and spiral out of control. It's certainly a bizarre message that underlies the evolutionary tale of adaptation for survival.
Perfect Sense contains a lot of promise in its premise and the way it presents the outbreak across the world. With a chef as a central character, it allows for exploration of how important smell and taste are in life and how, as a collective, we might move beyond it if need be. Otherwise, the film stumbles and fumbles its way to the finish line. Being an epidemiologist, Susan manages to do little other than inform the viewer of exactly what is happening and how unexplainable it is and Green brings little to the role beyond her willingness to strip down. Breaking occasionally for aforementioned narration, Perfect Sense tries too hard for a contemplative tone which ends up feeling cheaply manufactured. Different techniques are employed to convey the loss of senses, but even this has been done better elsewhere (see Julia's Eyes for a fantastic example).
When the predictable final scene arrives, it's none-too-soon. By the end of its 90 minutes, Perfect Sense will likely leave a bad taste in quite a few mouths.
