Scent of a Woman

This takes its inspiration from an Italian film of 1974, Profumo di donna, and concerns the relationship between Frank Slade (Pacino), a blind and very bitter ex-Vietnam army officer, and a 17-year-old boy (O'Donnell) hired to look after him over a weekend. The film splices two plots together, more ambitiously than successfully: O'Donnell's Charlie Simms is a bright young scholarship kid whose academic hopes face the chop when he becomes embroiled in a schoolboy prank played by some well-off classmates. Charlie has the weekend to decide whether to tell or not; Slade plans to enjoy himself on a spree to New York before ending his life in a military-style suicide. The outcome is as predictable as it is wholesomely traditional, but Pacino pulls out all the stops as the blind warrior, dancing a mean impromptu tango, taking a car for a suicidal spin, barking orders, charming ladies with his super-hearing, and finally coming good on Charlie's behalf. Corny and heart-warming, with O'Donnell proving almost a match for the master.