If you look at some of my more recent reviews, you may notice I have been on a real 90s kick lately. Scent of a Woman, released in 1993, is a movie I remember being a big deal, but no way would 12 year old me have been interested in this movie, and I went many years without seeing it. Well, I picked this up in a charity shop on Blu-Ray for a great price and ended up watching it over the weekend.
Where to Watch Scent of a Woman
Scent of a Woman was released on December 23, 1992. You can stream the film from a digital platform.
The Movie Review
The thing is, I actually found this quite a while ago, but for some reason was never in the mood to watch it. Apart from knowing that Al Pacino (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, The Irishman, House of Gucci) won an Oscar and it starred a pre-Robin, Chris O’Donnell, I never actually knew much about this. Before I get into the plot, I can tell you that by the time the credits rolled, I loved this movie! This is one of those movies that just flew by, as I was so engrossed by it.
Plot Summary and Character Dynamics
Chris O’Donnell plays the role of a prep school student called Charlie. Charlie needs money for a plane ticket to go home for the holidays, and this leads him to helping out a man called Frank for a few days. Frank is played by Al Pacino, and when you watch this movie, it is so easy to see why he won an Oscar for this role.
Frank is not in a good place. Frank is a war veteran, he is blind, grouchy, and pretty much an alcoholic. Frank has a list of things that he wants to do over the next few days, ranging from seeing his brother, staying in a nice hotel, having sex with a hot woman, and then he plans to kill himself! It is like this is one last hurrah for him, and Charlie is going to be the person ferrying him around as he completes his list of things that he wants to do.
The Heart of the Movie: Frank and Charlie
Now, as you would expect, Frank and Charlie bond, and they become quite close. While it is easy to just focus on Al Pacino as Frank and his issues, Charlie also has a lot going on with some trouble at school. I think that Chris O’Donnell is great in this movie; he and Al Pacino work so well together, and you can truly feel their bond growing as the movie progresses.
Supporting Cast and Memorable Performances
Look, this movie is 100 percent carried by Al Pacino and Chris O’Donnell, but there is a really fun support cast here. There is a young Phillip Seymore Hoffman, and perhaps the thing that got the biggest hell yeah out of me was a role for American Horror Story alumni, Frances Conroy!
Al Pacino’s Oscar-Winning Performance
I do have to go into a little more detail about Al Pacino as Frank. This is one of the best performances I have ever seen from Al Pacino, hence why he won the Oscar. Frank is such an interesting character in that he has all this bravado, confidence, and charisma, but he is also so deeply troubled and flawed at the same time. He can flip a switch and just change in an instant, and it is so well done.
Final Thoughts: A Movie That Stays With You
You know, I am so glad that I did not watch this movie during my teenage years and that I was able to watch this as an arguably more mature adult. This was just a fantastic experience and one that stuck with me for a few days after I watched this. This was just a really heartfelt story about two people whom I truly did grow to care about, and it has a fantastic feel-good ending. Which was very well done, as I was pretty worried for both Charlie and Frank and how their situations would end up.
