This movie is about what you would expect from the synopsis. We learn a little at a time what Leigh's life is like and especially her very sad backstory. Even so, the movie tries to keep from getting totally hopeless. So if you start to think about the repercussions of what it could be, it could become quite depressing. Somehow Leigh manages an outlook at least a little above depressing.
It soon becomes clear that there are people who know about Leigh and her potential. Perfume? Yeah sure. The people who know want more than that and it is all about power and money.
The relationship between Guy and Leigh could almost be a romance. The actors sell it, especially Vinessa Shaw. Is it irony that the woman who appears to men as their fantasy girl starts to think about this stranger, Guy, as the fulfillment of the fantasies that she has undoubtedly nurtured and at the same time denied over all her years in this solitary hell?
Yes I think the movie does a decent job bringing these emotions out in me, the viewer.
I doubt that the "twist" surprises many people, but there is another twist that is fairly clever after that.