Scent of a Woman (1992)
Directed by Martin Brest
Charlie Simms is a student at a private preparatory school who comes from a poor family. To earn the money for his flight home to Gresham, Oregon for Christmas, Charlie takes a job over Thanksgiving looking after retired U.S. Army officer Lieutenant Colonel Frank Slade, a cantankerous middle-aged man who lives with his niece and her family.
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7 films that influenced Scent of a Woman
What critics say influenced Scent of a Woman
An irascible bully who proves to have a heart of gold, Pacino's character seems manufactured by a computer programmed with box-office grosses, and it's disheartening to find a movie that professes to take a stand on behalf of personal integrity ripping off Chaplin's theme song from City Lights without credit to generate some of its pathos.
"Scent" resembles movies such as "The Last Detail" and "My Favorite Year," in which a swaggery, larger-than-life personality shows a greenhorn how to really live.
Al Pacino's winning entry in the disability Oscar sweepstakes, with plenty of reminders of Dead Poets Society to take up the slack once it runs out of ways of emulating Rain Man.
It's crossed here with the prep school movie, which from " A Separate Peace " through "If," " Taps ," " Dead Poets Society " and " True Colors ," has always involved a misfit who learns to stand up for what he believes in.
"Scent" resembles movies such as "The Last Detail" and "My Favorite Year," in which a swaggery, larger-than-life personality shows a greenhorn how to really live.
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Most people consider The Color of Money's Best Actor statuette to be a "Career Award" (as was the case with Al Pacino in Scent of a Woman ), but when one considers the competition (Dexter Gordon in 'Round Midnight, William Hurt in Children of a Lesser God, Bob Hoskins in Mona Lisa , and James Woods in Salvador), it's not an outrageous win.
The screenplay is by Bo Goldman (" Melvin and Howard "), who is more interested in the people than the plot.
Oscar-winning scriptwriter Bo Goldman (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Melvin and Howard) overwrote this story, relying heavily on awkwardly poetic speeches and episodic structuring.
The man writer Bo Goldman ("Cuckoo's Nest," "Shoot the Moon") and director Martin Brest ("Going in Style") introduce to us is such a foul-tempered, obnoxious, arrogant, self-pitying jerk that the state of his eyesight barely matters.