PLOT SUMMARY: When Charlotte meets Elizabeth, she thinks of her as a her replacement and isn't too happy her mentor showers his attention on her. Charlotte then sets about to sabotage Elizabeth.
Music is something that brings a call to the soul, that touches us, invokes fond memories and more often than not makes us feel elated.
But have you wondered how that piece of music actually came about? Clearly, not anyone with a musical instrument just played a few keys and composed a beautiful piece, did they?
It takes artists years of practice, blood and sweat to perfect their art. And unfortunately, not many have had it easy.
The Perfection is one of those movies that will confound you in the first half as to the nature of the proceedings. Once the twist kicks in, all of it makes sense.
THE PERFECTION Movie Plot
We meet Charlotte, a young woman who took a long hiatus from her career as a cellist to take care of her dying mother. Once her mother passes away, Charlotte travels to Shanghai to seek out her mentor Anton and his wife Paloma.
Once there, she meets with Elizabeth, also called Lizzie. Anton gives a speech introducing Lizzie as a prodigy and Charlotte watches her with a keen eye that almost seems like envy. Anton then requests Charlotte and Lizzie to play the cello together and they do in perfect harmony.
Coming downstairs, they see a man puking and suspected of being infected with a virus.
Later while Lizzie is taking a breath of fresh air outside, Charlotte seeks her out and notices her tattoo of a musical note. The two women give into temptation, clearly smitten and impressed with each other's accomplishments.
The next morning Charlotte admits Lizzie was her first and the latter promptly invites her to take a trip with her around rural areas just so they can disconnect from the world and do something different.
Charlotte agrees and the two women begin their trip but unfortunately, Lizzie wakes up the next morning terribly hungover. Charlotte gives her some ibuprofen and they set about their journey but Lizzie is unable to enjoy herself.
It is when the two women board the bus that things get complicated.
Lizzie gets really sick and asks for water which she immediately chugs down when a passenger offers her a bottle. Then she insists she has to go to the bathroom. Charlotte requests the bus driver to stop but he appears hostile and isn't too keen to stop in the middle of nowhere.
Charlotte, with the help of a friendly passenger, convince the driver to stop. Lizzie gets down with great difficulty, on the verge of soiling herself publicly.
She gets down and relieves herself, puking and soiling herself.
Charlotte helps her back on the bus and Lizzie pukes all over the window. Charlotte exclaims that there are worms in her puke and Lizzie sees the maggots too.
She suffers a severe headache and starts to bash her head against the window. The driver has had enough of their shenanigans and throws both Charlotte and Lizzie out.
Lizzie pukes again and spiders run out. Charlotte is getting even more frantic now.
Lizzie then feels like something is inside her body, and Charlotte also starts freaking out.
Charlotte tells Lizzie the only way to get the worms out is to cut off her hand. Lizzie is losing it and is desperate to do whatever it takes. She chops off her hand.
Charlotte smirks and there is a rewind.
Turns out Charlotte had planned the whole thing and drugged Lizzie with Levetracetam that caused Lizzie to have diarrhoea and hallucinations because of the overdose.
On the bus, Charlotte was researching how to make a tourniquet, already scheming a way to get Lizzie to cut off her hand.
Some time passes, and Lizzie heads home to Anton and Paloma. They are disturbed to find Lizzie without her hand.
She gets to stay for the night but yeh next day is told to leave because she's useless to them now. Lizzie pleads with Anton to let her stay on but he snubs her.
Lizzie finds Charlotte's photo in the passage and smashes it. Revenge is clearly on her mind.
Charlotte is busy in her house, cooking when she hears a sound. She goes around to investigate and finds Lizzie in her house. She hits her and steps on her face.
In the next scene, Lizzie has returned to Anton's academy for the gifted and hands him over Charlotte.
When Charlotte awakens, Anton asks why she did what she did to Lizzie to which she reveals she did it for her own good and wanted her to save her from him.
Anton smirks, pretty sure he hasn't done anything wrong. Charlotte reminds him how he had been a terrible mentor and pressurised her to play the "perfection" and when she made a mistake, she was punished for it with rape.
Anton still doesn't think he did anything wrong along with the other two teachers Geoffrey and Theis. Charlotte tells him she saw Lizzie's tattoo and knew how she got it.
Anton decides to torture Charlotte. He drags her to the chapel where only the talented are invited to play the perfection.
She is dressed up in a beautiful red gown and Jimmy Choos. There's a better closeup of her shoes than the chains around her ankles. Size 39 and a half.
THE PERFECTION Ending Explained
Charlotte is threatened to play the cello or else the new student, a very young girl, will suffer the same fate Charlotte did. She pleads with Anton to stop but he asks her to play a piece without mistake.
She manages to play a piece and it isn't confirmed whether or not she made a mistake or not. The girl sure was impressed even as others were not and congratulates Charlotte.
Charlotte begs Anton to do whatever he wants with her and leave the girl alone. That request is denied.
Anton tells Geoffrey and Theis to have fun with her and call him when she's done biting. Lizzie comes forward and says she deserves to go first and wants to use her stump in Charlotte's nether regions. Lizzie hands the other two men drinks and sets about to torture Charlotte when Geoffrey and Theis drop dead.
No surprise here. Spoiler alert!
There's another rewind and apparently, when Lizzie broke into Charlotte's house she told her how right she was about Anton and how he didn't love her and would put her out on the streets once he was done with her. Lizzie admits she was brainwashed and Charlotte promises to always be there for her.
Back to the present, the women are hellbent on revenge. Charlotte is shown to be wearing a wig since she had to receive electric shocks for her trauma she received because of Anton.
Paloma is stabbed in the back, and Anton is attacked by both women. In the ensuing scuffle, Charlotte's arm is sliced open and finally, Lizzie steps in. The two women get the upper hand over Anton.
In the last scene, Anton is shown with no limbs and his eyes and mouth stitched tight.
Lizzie and Charlotte have both lost opposite hands making it possible only for them to play the cello like a two-headed monster. Anton can only use his ears.
Apparently, the women are still seeking Anton's approval where music is concerned?
The movie had some interesting plot twists and the biggest one being in the first act when it tries to confuse viewers with the fact that Lizzie was probably infected with a contagious disease.
The acting was effective and the story well told.
Scare scale: 3.5/5
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