'Perfect Crime' captures satire in its truest form

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The elusive nature of perfection and the vain pursuit of it supply the central themes in Spanish filmmaker Alex de la Iglesia's very dark, very funny 2004 moral fable The Perfect Crime, new this week from Tartan Video ($22.95). It's our ...

DVD pick of the week

As the film opens, boastful, bearded, department-store stud Rafael (Guillermo Toledo) directly addresses the camera as he leads the viewer on a whirlwind tour of his well-ordered life — as a suave ladies man, a slick lingerie salesman and a profane pilgrim in relentless quest of an ever more "elegant" existence.

The next rung on the ladder of Rafael's perceived success is the vacant manager post at the sprawling Yeyo's superstore, for which slot he must battle despised rival Don Antonio (Luis Varela).

When said battle takes an unexpectedly literal and lethal turn, Rafael finds himself in the clenched claws of the crime's sole witness, Lourdes (Monica Cervera), a lowly, homely floor worker who represents everything Rafael fears and loathes — ugliness and mundanity in one fierce, voracious package.

That's just act one of Mr. de la Iglesia's inventive comedy, which incorporates stabs at modern dysfunctional-family life (via a hilarious visit to Lourdes' home), reality-TV shows and even horror-movie tropes. The ironies continue to accumulate as Rafael plans a more carefully premeditated murder to extricate himself from his nightmarish predicament.

While often pitch-black, "The Perfect Crime" is never mean-spirited. Director de la Iglesia's chief target is the aggressive commercialization of the illusion of perfection, a notion Rafael urgently explains to Lourdes even while trying to plunge her down an elevator shaft.

Films of this anarchic bent frequently paint themselves into a corner, but Mr. de la Iglesia and co-writer Jorge Guerricaechevarria conjure a satisfying conclusion for their tale, capped by a brilliantly cruel but true coda. "The Perfect Crime" rates as one of the sanest satires we've seen in ages.

Tele-video

In current TV-on-DVD developments, Paramount Home Entertainment dominates the backdate sitcom slate with a pair of vintage series. A young Tom Hanks and Peter Scolari go the reluctant drag route in the 1980s romp Bosom Buddies: The First Season (three-disc, $49.99), while Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz carry on in I Love Lucy: The Final Seasons: 7, 8 & 9 ($42.99), a four-disc set gathering all 13 "Lucy-Desi Comedy Hours," along with deleted scenes, on-set footage, flubs and much more.