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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Retail Might Kill You--An Uproarious Black Comedy From Spain, November 19, 2006
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.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Ferfect Black Comedy..., October 22, 2005
This review is from: El Crimen Ferpecto (The Perfect Crime) (DVD)
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!
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
de lo más divertido, February 28, 2010
Bueno, es verdad que a los novatos aquí en EE.UU.
que estudian español se les hace difícil entender
lo que se dice por el ceceo de los españoles. Pero,
con todo, esta película la encontré muy aguda,
ingeniosa y de lo más divertida y al verla en la
tele por un canal de habla hispana la compré para
mi colección. Para mí es una película muy acertada
en demostrar como son ciertos tipos de seres humanos,
y tiene un final muy chistoso y una música que pega.
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