2328. The Perfect Crime (2004)

Starring: Guillermo Toledo, Mónica Cervera, Luis Varela

Director: Álex de la Iglesia

Running Time: 105 mins

The Perfect Crime (Crimen ferpecto) is a Spanish film about a charismatic and ambitious salesman who, while chasing a big promotion, finds himself caught up in a chaotic series of events that involve him in the cover-up of a crime, and the unexpected consequences when things don’t go to plan.

I absolutely adored this movie. Devillishly dark and full of hilarious comedy, it’s an absolute riot from start to finish, with a fantastic lead performance from Guillermo Toledo, brilliantly energetic directing from Álex de la Iglesia, and a screenplay that takes all sorts of ingenious twists and turns to provide an endlessly entertaining watch right the way through.

The film starts in brilliantly charismatic fashion, with a sharp and dynamic monologue to camera from Guillermo Toledo, reminiscent of Martin Scorsese’s style in the likes of Goodfellas and, later, The Wolf Of Wall Street. As a result, Toledo’s character is established immediately as a slick and sharp man with questionable morals, and combined with a heap of excellent jokes in the middle – not to mention some very dynamic camerawork that keeps it flowing beautifully throughout – the movie gets off to a fantastic start.

From then on, de la Iglesia builds a hilariously dark atmosphere around everything, turning the most mundane of things – a department store – into a playground of bad morals and more. With that, the film has a striking atmosphere right the way through the first act, also creating a little bit of tension that brings us to the moment when everything turns into chaos.

Now, the great thing about this film as a black comedy is that it allows the screenplay to take certain liberties with its thriller plot that other films wouldn’t be able to. Things go very, very wrong for our main man about a third of the way through, and his entire slick and loose-moralled persona is turned completely on its head as he ends up facing a mountain of obstacles to get himself out of a complete mess.

The story then develops into a really exciting thriller, but with the added bonus of that comedic vibe, it allows for things to get completely and utterly out of hand, and with the appearance of an absolutely psychotic performance from Mónica Cervera through the second and third acts, The Perfect Crime turns into a delightfully insane movie right to the end.

Director de la Iglesia does a stunning job at giving the film that sharply dark atmosphere, and combined with some brilliant cinematography throughout, the film has a relentless pace to it that adds an extra level of thrills into the mix, to the point where we see everything spiralling completely out of control for Toledo’s character, and it’s both hilarious and equally breathless to watch.

Overall, I had a great time with The Perfect Crime. A rapid-fire and gleefully dark comedy that’s full of brilliant twists and turns throughout, furthered by two stunning central performances, a sharp screenplay, and dynamic and energetic directing from start to finish, it’s an endlessly entertaining watch, and that’s why I’m giving it an 8.4.