Scent of a Woman


1992 drama

Rating: 15/20

Plot: A kid at a private school takes a job watching over a blind guy during Thanksgiving break, but the job is more than he bargained for.

It's arguable that Al Pacino's Oscar-winning performance in this is a little uneven, but there's nobody else who can do what he does here. He rises above a mediocre story and sketchy writing and gives this performance that makes this entertaining even at a bloated 2 1/2 hours.

Out of those 2 1/2 hours, I definitely don't like the last third nearly as much as what comes before it. It's pretty much from when he hops in that Ferrari to the end of the movie. Things get silly and Hollywoody, and by the time we reach the movie's second climax--the one for the plot that we don't really care about after the really goofy climax of the other plot--it's a little hard to take it all seriously.

Take out the individual moments in this that are truly great, most of them involving Pacino doing things or delivering some monologue about this or that, and there's a lot to really love about this one.

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