Republished from the show notes of my other site, Fuds on Film.
Or The Ferpect Crime is Blightly, or if you’re in the USA, The Perfect Crime, which again does not speak highly of studio’s opinion of the intelligence of their audience.
Guillermo Toledo’s Rafael González has it all, or at least, has a plan to eventually get it all. He’s the superstar salesman of a Madrid department store, managing the woman’s clothing department with eyes on a promotion, as well as eyes on every nubile assistant in the store, who mystifyingly find him irresistible. But who am I to judge appearances?
Anyway the competition for the promotion turns nasty, and after a mild brawl his competition, Luis Varela’s Don Antonio Fraguas is accidentally killed. This crime isn’t perfect at all, and Rafael scrambles to cover his tracks. Unexpectedly, he has some help, as the, ahem, homely assistant Lourdes (Mónica Cervera), who has been besotted with Rafael for a while. She helps dispose of the body, at the low, low price of blackmailing Rafael into both a relationship and the run of the floor, having him fire anyone she dislikes.
Well, this can’t stand, so Rafael will have to find a way out, even if that means another ferpect crime to kill Lourdes, aided by the imagined ghost of Don Antonio as Rafael’s mental state deteriorates.
I suppose by this point you’re used to the idea of black humour in Álex de la Iglesia films, and this is no exception. I found this entirely entertaining throughout, apart from a final act addition of clowns, which is naturally terrifying. More on this in our next review.
There’s not much point looking for any broader point or commentary on society here, I think it’s just here to have a laugh for an hour and a half(ish), and it achieved that handily. So much so that I don’t think I have a great deal else to say about it, other than to recommend it.