Frank is a retired Lt Col in the US army. He's blind and impossible to get along with. Charlie is looking forward to going to university; to help pay for a trip home for Christmas, he agrees to look after Frank over thanksgiving. This was supposed to be easy money only that wasn't really the case.
The guiding principle of Al Pacino's flamboyant performance (for which he finally received the Oscar) is that of revelation: Every scene discloses another facet of his mysterious, multi-shaded character.
Thanks to a landmark performance by Al Pacino, Scent of a Woman is an agreeably watchable film. If they'd made it half an hour shorter and re-written the ending, it could have been a great one.
By the end of Scent of a Woman, we have arrived at the usual conclusion of the coming-of-age movie, and the usual conclusion of the prep school movie. But rarely have we been taken there with so much intelligence and skill.
A great character-driven movie starring two well-rounded characters, a fun performance by Pacino, deft directing, a complementary score and plenty of human interest all the way around.
