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Scent of a Woman (1992)

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From Time Out Film Guide

This takes its inspiration from an Italian film of 1974, Profumo di donna, and concerns the relationship between Frank Slade (Pacino), a blind and very bitter ex-Vietnam army officer, and a 17-year-old boy (O'Donnell) hired to look after him over a weekend. The film splices two plots together, more ambitiously than successfully: O'Donnell's Charlie Simms is a bright young scholarship kid whose academic hopes face the chop when he becomes embroiled in a schoolboy prank played by some well-off classmates. Charlie has the weekend to decide whether to tell or not; Slade plans to enjoy himself on a spree to New York before ending his life in a military-style suicide. The outcome is as predictable as it is wholesomely traditional, but Pacino pulls out all the stops as the blind warrior, dancing a mean impromptu tango, taking a car for a suicidal spin, barking orders, charming ladies with his super-hearing, and finally coming good on Charlie's behalf. Corny and heart-warming, with O'Donnell proving almost a match for the master.

Author: SGr

Time Out Film Guide

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Mandy said...

Posted on Mar 14 2008 13:26 Here we have a cynical bully who surprises his “babysitter” with plans for their Thanksgiving weekend together. There are tickets to New York that have been bought, a Waldorf suite that’s been booked, a rented limousine, and other big plans for quite an outrageous weekend in the Big A. Before Charlie realizes what he has gotten into, he is joining the Lt. Col. around New York with a quick, but nerve-wrecking test drive in a beautiful Ferrari, and an entertaining tango with a beautiful woman that’s just been met. An amazing film with amazing actors, Scent of a Woman (1992), directed by Martin Brest, becomes a classic!
Charlie, played by Chris O’Donnell, is a young, innocent student at a private preparatory school in New Hampshire, trying to find a way to get out of the schoolboy prank that’s just happened at school, and who says he will look after Lieutenant-Colonel Frank Slade, who is played by Al Pacino. Frank is a blind, retired army officer, and Charlie yearns to earn some extra money over the Thanksgiving holiday so he can make it home for Christmas. Colonel Slade can sense the scent of any woman; name the scent she is wearing. He can somehow tell almost exactly the way a person looks, the facial expression they have upon themselves at any given moment, and the direction or movement one is participating in, even if they end up being as quiet as a mouse. Although, only given a 7.1 rating out of 10, this booming, leading role by Al Pacino won an Academy award for Best Actor with his amazing performance.
Frank's passion is women; he “waxes” lyrically on their bodies, scent, and everything, and surely but slowly, Charlie learns to be aware of the sweet romantic buried deep within the lonely blind man's heart. Charlie and Frank's growing relationship is the whole idea of the film; Frank teaches Charlie how to see, while Charlie teaches Frank how to feel. Lieutenant-Colonel Slade gets a bit carried away at times, with his hand gun, which is supposedly never to be stripped of and parted from. Charlie gets a little frightened by the big man seeming a little whacked out. Charlie doesn’t seem too daring, but Col. Slade really brings out the best in him, and at the same time, Charlie truly does bring out the real Frank Slade. Throughout just a weekend, a young and an old become the best of friends.
One of my favorite ideas about the entire film, Scent of a Woman, is really the whole plot that was created behind the scenes. I find it very interesting that an older man with some sort of disability, in this case it’s being blind, could show such passion without trying to make it seem that way for a much younger high school student. Colonel Slade, obviously, tries to not make it seem so obvious that he does have a soft side to him, and he’s ironic, so ironic, with the different ways he tries to teach his own lessons learned to Charlie. It’s a beautiful story, this film; the story behind it is magnificent. It’s amazing how two people so different from each other end up realizing after getting to know one another, that they are so alike.
Scent of a Woman is a corny, comedic, and heart-warming, with its flamboyant performing actors. I would most definitely recommend anyone, except smaller children to whom it will be difficult to understand to the fullest, to view this film, simply because it’s a film that involves an adult, with a problem, and a teenage boy with a problem. Frank is lonely and in all reality, so is Charlie. We do all have problems, yes? Charlie and Frank, I believe, were destined to work together and find each other and really learn more about themselves for the better sake. Also, we don’t see many teenagers these days making nice and becoming great buddies with a person over 20 years older than them. The relationship that is modeled in Scent of a Woman is just outstanding and hard to beat, but teaches a great lesson, that anything is possible and you don’t always need to find someone your own age to get along so well with, because a person of any age, size, manner, etc. can be right around the corner when you go looking for that job over Thanksgiving break.

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