| Scent of a Woman (1992): 4 Stars Directed by Martin Brest, Starring Al Pacino, Chris O'Donnell, Phillip Seymour Hoffman |
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| I recently saw Scent of a Woman on second viewing after first seeing it over a decade ago. It's a typical young-man-meets-older-man-who-guides-him-through-coming-of-age story in the tradition of Dead Poet's Society, Goodbye Mr. Chips and Good Will Hunting. It stars Al Pacino as Colonel Slade, the old man who in this version has a pretty nasty exterior to get past, and Chris O'Donnell as the poor prep school student who must look after Pacino's character for a weekend so he can raise enough money to go home for Thanksgiving Break. I started out having three main problems with this movie. First of all, Charlie (O'Donnell's character) is pretty asexual. Now i think you're aloud to be asexual. Not every movie protagonist has to be involed with a girl and it's even refreshing in the wake of how oversexualized movies and TV have gotten in the last decade (i.e. American Pie, Cruel Intentions, Wedding Crashers, Las Vegas). However, the contrast with so much talk about sex from the Colonel's character combined with the fact that Charlie's in late adolescence and his hormones should be in full bloom made me various curious. I wish he could have at least danced with the pretty girl rather than play wingman for Al Pacino in the tango scene, for example. My second problem lies in how Al Pacino's character arc from nasty to nice seemed a bit overdone at the beginning and stretched out too much. If you believe the character of Frank Slade at the end of the movie is Pacino's true self, then his self at the start of the movie is a bit hard to believe. Even though i know that a more dynamic character arc makes it easy to portray change, I thought Al Pacino could be more subtle than that. My biggest beef, however, is that the boys who Charlie refuses to squeal on have absolutely no likeable traits whatsoever. They're ugly, uncharismatic, they rub in their wealth and their cowards. The pressure that guy George exerts on him is just cruel. It is true that the headmaster is a jerk for picking him out because he had a scholarship, but I wasn't neccessarily sure what the lesser of the two evils was. However, these three things that lingered in my memory from 10 years ago were gone by movie's end, because of how exuberant and moved I felt. Those problems are more than cancelled out by the chemistry between Pacino and O'Donnell and that is rare. O'Donnell plays his part with a wide-eyed innocnce but with a guarded sense of caution that keeps the movie from becoming too corny, and Pacino is mesmerizing. The two create magic with every conversation they have. I also appreciate how the film isn't very conventional in its narrative. The movie is also great in that it plays out more like a series of short episodes and the fun of some of them (li.e. the test car scene and the tango lesson) contrasts with the more emotional interchanges. |
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