Charlie Simms is in prep school and doesn’t massively fit in with the rich kids. He must get a job to help pay for it and ends up looking after blind Lieutenant Colonel Frank Slade. It isn’t as easy and straightforward as he may think . . . Al Pacino won an Oscar for Best Actor for his performance in this film, which was nominated for Best Picture so therefore another to tick off my Best Picture Project list. Yes I know it has been a while for any of those, but this is a strange film as I have had it on DVD for a while now but never given it a chance. So I eventually did when it was on Sky Movies the other night, and how pleased I am to say I have now watched this film.
So Charlie Simms has got into some trouble at school, but not for actually doing anything himself just being in the wrong place at the wrong time to witness something happening. So he has the weight of the world on his shoulders, which was not a good thing going into the weekend of caring for Frank.
Frank is rude, nasty and pretty much horrible to anyone who crosses his path. You want to feel sympathy for him but that is not possible. Well to begin with anyway, we slowly get his back story and how he became blind. Why his family don’t like him and why he is all alone. It truly is one of the best performances I have ever watched, Pacino really is something else. But I think that the supporting role from Chris O’Donnell helps his performance as well.
Throughout Pacino is loud and has some great little quirks as part of the character. I mean it must have been extremely difficult to perform as a blind man, but I thought the way he was looking and moved around were pretty incredible. I have to admit that I was wondering for quite a long time why the title of the film is ‘Scent of a Woman’ but that is something that we slowly find out.
I think the fact that Frank makes Charlie fly to New York City with him was totally crazy. But something did seem a little bit off and funny about it all when they were flying first class, staying in a top hotel and eating in expensive restaurants. Frank eventually tells Charlie his plan and how he only has a one way plane ticket. I think you can guess what is coming next. This puts Charlie in a terrible situation.
The main points and thing I have taken from the film is that no matter who you are you can learn something from someone who is totally different. You need to realize that small decisions can really impact on your entire life. Frank just wanted to be loved and someone to like him. Charlie wanted to stay in the good prep school and make something of his life. I have to also add that the final scene really blew me away, the performance from Pacino throughout was doing that but that final scene really was the icing on the cake.
If you want to see a truly incredible performance I certainly recommend that you watch this film, some of the ways he moves, speaks and acts is unreal from Pacino. Honestly I think this is the type of performance we just don’t see in current films.