Search - The Perfect Crime (El Crimen Perfecto) on DVD

Retail Might Kill You--An Uproarious Black Comedy From Spain

K. Harris | Las Vegas, NV | 11/19/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I had seen a preview for "Crimen Perfecto" in the theaters quite a while ago, and I thought it looked like a cute diversion. However, I was not prepared for this outrageously funny black comedy--it so far exceeded my expectations that I can't recommend it highly enough. Part sex romp, part macabre murder, part emotional blackmail, part supernatural, part retail satire--this one really covers a lot of ground in a very silly way. It's dark humor, sometimes mean-spirited, in the vein of perhaps "A Fish Called Wanda."

Rafael, played nicely by Guillermo Toledo, is a Department Store lothario. Manager of Women's Wear, he is working his way through the attractive sales staff. When a promotion to Floor Supervisor doesn't go his way, he is infuriated. Confronting his nemesis, who has received the job, an altercation ensues leaving the rival dead. But there's a witness. Homely Lourdes, a delightful Monica Cervera, helps him cover up the accident because she is secretly in love with Rafael. But this entwines them in the crime and in life.

The movie turns into a demented battle of wills and blackmail. Advised by the ghoulish specter of the dead man, Rafael plots to extricate himself from the clutches of an increasingly bizarre Lourdes. Played fast and loose, this is a laugh out loud comedy--but it's clever too. It's outrageous, but not dumb--a perfect balance of slapstick and wit. But it can be the blackest of humor as well--what with murder, dismemberment and more. And I loved the Department Store setting--anyone who has ever worked retail will appreciate the astute satire of this backdrop.

Not necessarily a classic, but a movie I will share with others--I'd rate this at about 4 1/2 stars for entertainment value. KGHarris, 11/06.

"

Ferfect Black Comedy...

grendelgirl | CA | 10/22/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is black comedy at its best! It is a cheerfully amoral movie from Spain about ambition, sex, power, and murder. Nearly all of the action takes place within a posh cosmopolitan department store.

Our narrator, Rafael, is a department salesman who reigns over the ladies' section like a self-satisfied despot. Women breathe a little heavier in his presence. All but one of his male co-workers are in complete awe of him; only dour fellow salesman Don Antonio openly disapproves of Rafael. The two men are competing for an upper management position, and Rafael is counting on his own considerable charisma to help him land the job.

But the competition between himself and his rival becomes increasingly intense. A scuffle in the men's dressing room ends with Rafael inadvertantly murdering Don Antonio. In a sweaty panic, he tries to cover his tracks and dispose of the body - only to discover that someone has beaten him to it!

That "someone" is Lourdes, a homely, clown-obsessed saleswoman with a sizable crush on Rafael. Lourdes is alternately threatening and needy towards Rafael, who must now simutaneously conspire with and appease her. It isn't long before he becomes more and more resentful of her attention and her ambitions. Soon Rafael is planning to murder Lourdes, too. He becomes more delusional as he becomes more walled in. In some of the funniest scenes, the murdered Don Antonio reappears as a sympathetic ghost, ready to help the increasingly desperate Rafael carry out her murder.

Rafael's cocky narration and self-serving philosophies are hilarious. So are his attempts to reign in Lourdes' touchy affection, knowing that a wrong move on his part can send her running to the police to incriminate him. Best of all are the increasingly absurd situations that center around the disposal of Don Antonio's dead body, as Rafael tries to understand whether the murdered body or Lourdes herself poses the greater threat. I don't think I've laughed so much during a movie in years. It's that good!
"

Almost ferpect film

Andres C. Salama | Buenos Aires, Argentina | 12/08/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I'm not a complete fan of Alex de la Iglesia's movies - he's technically proficient, but the things that tend to interest him (old style cinephilia, terror films of the 70s, pop culture in general) are far from mine. This biting satire of consumerism, though, is probably as perfect (or ferpect) a film as he can make. The movie stars Rafael, who works as the head salesman in the ladies section of a large department store in Madrid (it is subtly touching that Rafael believes his position in society is far more important than it really is). Around him work very beautiful, model-like woman, that he never fails to bed. He's the ruler of a very small kingdom. Soon, a job opens for one of the top posts in the department store, and he founds himself fighting for the promotion against the balding Don Antonio, one of the old-fashioned vendors in the men' section. Rafael accidentally kills him, and after wards disposes of the body. But there is one witness, Lourdes, the ugliest worker in the department store (and I mean, really ugly), who is in love with Rafael. She's also something of a psycho, has a really crazy family and she will then proceed to blackmail Rafael into marrying her in order not to blow the whistle about the murder; a nightmare for the consummate ladies man that is Rafael. The last 20 minutes are something of a letdown (De la Iglesia probably didn't knew how to end the story, since a tragic ending would be out of line with the farcical tone of the movie before), but overall this is a surprisingly strong, entertaining movie, that is also hilariously critical of capitalism."