Ferpect Crime (aka The Perfect Crime) DVD Review

Rafael González (a very charismatic Guillermo Toledo) is given an intro worthy of Jack Burton in the films opening prologue: A clothing salesman is giving a hands-on sales seminar where berates the hacks he has to teach and waxes philosophically on the best salesman he ever trained. A credits sequence across Rafael’s apartment yields a dense pile of information accompanied by his own voice-over narration as if to say, lets get any exposition out of the way early on.

Rafael is a man (in his own mind) of style and ambition, but with a shyster’s work-ethic. He is not so much a great salesman as a man of the short-con. He currently is employed as the head of the ladies department in a upscale Madrid department store. By day, he sells expensive clothing to plain middle aged women while his night are occupied with the bombshell saleswomen in the change rooms or for a bit of extra kink, the children’s furniture department. The only salesgirl he hasn’t banged is Lourdes, who is frumpy and bug-eyed and serves only to make the other ladies look more ravishing. Her part in the story expands with many fun surprises, and Mónica Cervera takes the role of meek woman turned monster and runs with it.

The path to his golden ticket of career satisfaction (and stock options) lies in a sales competition with the head of the Men’s department for the entire Floor Manager job. His competition, the seemingly ironically named Don Antonio sports the most vulgar of mens accessories (the toupee) and has been employed at the store forever. He disgustingly gets by with an honest work ethic while selling socks, ties and slacks to the middle managers of the world. Rafael’s cons backfire and Don Antonio gets the Floor Manager job. Even worse, revenge is taken by his formal rival as immediate demotion for Rafael in the form of exile to the Big and Tall section and a walk of shame with broken mannequins in front of former lovers and admirers. No spoilers here, as all of this happens in the opening minutes of the film. There are several more acts to follow as Rafael stumbles and schemes and plummets towards an honest work ethic by having his ambitions, self-image and sense of style smashed against the rocks of common kitsch and the feared ‘normal’ domestic life.

Crimen Ferpecto plays like an operatic mishmash of The War of the Roses, A Fish Called Wanda and Jeux D’Enfants (a film with an equally ravaged English title: Love Me If You Dare). Thrown into the mix are stylistic nods to Alfred Hitchcock (on second thought, perhaps more De Palma than Hitchcock), David Fincher and Darren Aronofsky. There is a gallery of grotesque characters (worthy of Delicatessen or Adam’s Apples) supporting the two completely unlikable leads. From Rafael’s toady backstabbing co-worker in the ladies dept to a wall-eyed police inspector who steals every scene his is in with sublime deadpan timing (A modern day Marty Feldman?). All of this peaks in a meet-the-parents dinner that strikes the black comedy g-spot. And that is just the half-way point of the film.

The second half gets around to the title of the film and is as frenetic, unhinged and karmic as the movies Rafael rents in his criminal planning stages (Luis Buñuel’s Rehearsal for a Crime, Alfred Hitchcock’s Dial M for Murder and Otto Preminger’s Anatomy of a Murder). It is telling that alongside this film in the video store he visits for research is a prominently displayed copy of The Lawnmower Man.

If I have written this review almost completely by mentioning other films and filmmakers, it is only to emulate de la Iglesia’s style. It is a tad obvious for the most part, but somehow he makes that hit-over-the-head aspects of the film mesh with the visual style. This is charming enough for those who put John Carpenter and Howard Hawks up on the same pedestal. Maybe Álex de la Iglesia will find a cult audience over on this side of the Pond with his forthcoming English language film, The Oxford Murders, that has the good sense to cast Jean-Pierre Jeunet favorite Dominic Pinon and Repo Man director Alex Cox in small roles.

Tartan Video offers up the film with a popping transfer which well serves the films colourful palette. The 5.1 audio track also shines. Director’s commentary, a making of featurette and the original trailer round out the disc.

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