The Perfect Crime (El Crimen Perfecto)

Buy This Item The Perfect Crime (El Crimen Perfecto) by Tartan Video  Available from Amazon  $12.99  on 11-25-2008     Spanish iconoclast Alex de Iglesia continues to toy with genre conventions in this black comedy, offering up his characteristic social commentary in a skewering of consumerist culture and the superficial values it perpetuates. Reader Reviews 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.

The Perfect Crime (El Crimen Perfecto) Available from Amazon Price: $12.99 Updated on 11-25-2008.

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