Scent of a Woman: Review By AnnoyingFilmCritic

Great movies leave a lasting impact no matter their genre, budget or star filigree. They tend to linger in your head for their pieces or hopefully, overall wallop of amazement. 1992's Scent of a Woman keeps hitting me over the head all of these years later.

I watched this movie recently because I remembered all through the years that it was good, that it was tremendous, actually. This movie paralled my mood and need to be uplifted because of a family crisis. It didn't fail me.

Scent of a Woman stars Al Pacino(as LT. Colonel Frank Slade) and Chris O' Donnel (Charlie Simms) in a movie ostensibly about a prep school student looking after a retired, blind wild card veteran for a Thanksgiving weekend so the kid can raise money to return home for Christmas.

What the viewer receives is a bright light cast upon the fractured human condition. Expectations and its concomitant aspiring gropes at perfection define who we want to be, please and wrestle with daily. Otherwise, we are killing time.

The protagonist, Charlie/O' Donnel takes up a short term job to babysit the very irascible Colonel/Pacino over a weekend so that Pacino's family can visit their relatives after he turned down their inclusion. Charlie is warned that underneath all of the layers of hostlity, that the Colonel is a "lump of sugar, that they'll be best friends by the end of the weekend." With all of Pacino's bravura bitterness and castigation, that caveat seems more and more like a hard sales pitch than the easy $300 gig as advertised.

Through the course of the movie, we learn that the Colonel is a despondent decorated war hero, a control freak, a horn dog, a good tango dancer and a person on the brink of suicide with a list of pleasures to complete before the Thanksgiving weekend concludes. Charlie, the relatively poor, squeaky clean/square prep student faces a moral dilemma of ratting on his rich friends' school vandalism to the headmaster to protect his future. Pacino's foil and muse.

By a series of delights on a trip to New York city, like making love to a beautiful woman again, staying at a 4 star hotel and driving a Ferrari, they bond and discover their inner mettle. It's these 2nd act scenes that that are so funny, poignant and engrossing. Watching Pacino bark, command others (whether family or strangers) and fall apart with such vivacity and vulnerabilty that makes this movie and his first Oscar winning performance for Best actor (1993) a tumultuous, indelible experience.

The Pacino standing in for Charlie's absent parents at the school trial denouement is icing on the proverbial cake. Justice is meted out and longing for the main characters, LT. Colonel Frank Slade and prep school student Charlie to gather for Christmas around the corner is palpable. This great movie makes the audience anticipate that they do. Hoo-Ahh!!