In spite of the good acting, especially by Mr. Pacino (has he ever delivered a poor acting job?) I can't possibly say that I found "Scent of a Woman" a good movie. The story isn't bad, and there definitely are some very good moments, but about halfway through the novelty wears off, and what's left is a predictable and somewhat sentimental Hollywood vehicle, in the vein of "A Beautiful Mind" or the "English Patient".
The largest problem is that it's all terribly overdone: the movie keeps stressing and stressing how blind and depressed Al Pacino's character is and how great he used to be, leading to some pretty ridiculous scenes of a blind man driving a car and an quite ludicruous speech in which Al basically says it's OK to lie and cover things up. It's all so exaggerated: they keep stressing why it's supposed to be touching and it just gets annoying. After a while I just waiting for the movie to end: it had made it's point but it kept going on and on and on. I was glad when it was finally over.
** out of *** stars (mainly since it's acted very well).
The largest problem is that it's all terribly overdone: the movie keeps stressing and stressing how blind and depressed Al Pacino's character is and how great he used to be, leading to some pretty ridiculous scenes of a blind man driving a car and an quite ludicruous speech in which Al basically says it's OK to lie and cover things up. It's all so exaggerated: they keep stressing why it's supposed to be touching and it just gets annoying. After a while I just waiting for the movie to end: it had made it's point but it kept going on and on and on. I was glad when it was finally over.
** out of *** stars (mainly since it's acted very well).