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Perfect Crime

Generally favorable reviews
Based on 21 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 7 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Comedy | Crime | Foreign
Written by:
Jorge Guerricaechevarría
Álex de la Iglesia
Directed by: Álex de la Iglesia
Release Date:
Theatrical: August 19, 2005
DVD: March 13, 2007
Running Time: 105 minutes, Color
Origin: Spain / Italy
Language(s): Spanish (with English subtitles)
Summary
RATING: Not Rated
Starring Guillermo Toledo, Mónica Cervera, Luis Varela, Fernando Tejero, Kira Miró, and Enrique Villén
This black comedy centers on the intense rivalry between two Madrid department store employees.
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips
It's great fun, propelled by a terrific musical score by Roque Banos that combines the hammering doom of Bernard Herrmann, the antic jollity of Nino Rota and the urgent sprints of Lalo "Mission: Impossible" Schifrin--often in the same crazy scene.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek
El Crimen Perfecto is a joyride that leaves you feeling drunk and dizzy and swearing that you haven't touched a drop.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly John Patterson
Writer-director Alex de la Iglesia's bouncy, swaggering satire of ethics-deficient, survival-of-the-fittest free enterprise, peopled by broad grotesques and hysterical caricatures, adds Chabrolian callousness to a cartoonish worldview reminiscent of Frank Tashlin or Joe Dante at their most frenzied.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Walter Addiego
With his caustic humor, director de la Iglesia is being billed as "the next Almodovar."
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Wesley Morris
If anyone is capable of pulling off a deviled screwball with cheeky panache, it's de la Iglesia, who's one of the world's great nutty directors yet to find the American following he so richly deserves.
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Jim Fusilli
Fits nicely among the contemporary comedies that teeter at the brink of delivering messages of one sort or another, but are in fact, nothing more than lots of fun. Which is no small achievement.
Chicago Reader J.R. Jones
A seamless mix of satire and suspense, with inspired performances by Toledo and Monica Cervera.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Lawrence Van Gelder
Mr. Toledo's performance as the shallow and cowardly, yet strangely sympathetic Rafael is a wonder of comic timing, while Ms. Cervera is unforgettable as Lourdes, the ugly duckling who becomes not a swan, but a monster.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias
As it progresses from black comedy to something approaching surreal horror, El Crimen Perfecto swells into a nightmare reminiscent of Griffin Dunne's journey through Soho hell in "After Hours."
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer Gianni Truzzi
Far from perfect, but it only commits minor infractions of inconsistency and zeal for every plot twist.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten
Hitchcock and Almodóvar this film isn't, but it's a worthwhile and fairly amusing effort.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Marta Barber
Fast, frantic and furious, but it is not steadily funny. While not boring, it is too light to be taken seriously.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen
My advice is to choose the first half, where things are really funny until they aren't.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Desson Thomson
The first 60 minutes of this black comedy are brilliantly sustained, but then director and co-writer de la Iglesia loses his way.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
El Crimen Perfecto has energy, color, spirit and lively performances, but what it does not have are very many laughs.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Jorge Morales
At its most ludicrously self-referential, the film achieves the perfect meta-moment when Toledo, seeking pointers on how to get away with murder, buys a copy of "Dial M for Murder" (released in Spain as Perfect Crime) and notices the title scans incorrectly as Ferpect Crime.
Read Full Review >New York Post V.A. Musetto
There's not enough good material to fill the film's overlong 105 minutes. Is there an editor in the house?
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 9.2 (out of 10) based on 7 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Edward C. gave it a9:
I thought the story was really well conceived for what it was and what it wasn't. This style of film requires all reality to be left at the box office. That green face with cleaver in head popping up everywhere was a real Hoot! No American or Anglo would ever think of it.
Ken G. gave it an8:
Edgy, fun, funny, well acted, and done in great style.
Bob E. gave it a9:
Sex and violence meet in the fitting room and have a wildly funny tryst.
sal gave it a10:
Truly a spanish film and wonderful.
Pussycat 1 gave it a9:
Hilarious black comedy.
