The scent of a woman is a classic vintage film which is another great for the Thanksgiving weekend. Based on a more aptly named Italian novel ” Il Buio et il Miele” (The dark and the honey) it is actually the remake of an Italian award-winning film from 1974. But before you go running off to find the original, know that this film won Pacino his first (hopefully not last) Oscar. The novel title is appropriate because Dark is the perfect word to describe Pacino’s character Frank Slade who is blind (living in darkness) and is miserable both with his life and to everyone around him. In fact, he is suicidal, you can’t get much darker than that. Honey is for the film title scent of a woman, that slightly floral, slightly sweet scent that Frank swears he can follow to know a woman, right down to her hair and eye color.
The subplot in the scent of a woman is about prep-school and standing your ground for what you believe in. The Thanksgiving part of it is reduced to a mere holiday weekend and excuse for the principle characters to meet. But by the end we feel that Pacino’s tough guy is thankful; and expressing his gratitude to the boy Charlie Simms (played by Chris O’Donnell) who was hired to watch him over the holidays and ended up giving him a reason to live again.
For those of you who like a little movie trivia: Pacino, practiced assembling and disassembling his weapon with his eyes closed. When ever he got it right, under 45 seconds, the soldier who trained him yelled “Hoo-ah” which Pacino incorporated into his character for the scent of a woman to show excitement. (No Thanksgiving would be complete without a “Hoo-Ah” yell) The scenes at the Braid all boys school, were actually filmed in an all girl’s school, Emma Willard School. Pacino originally turned down the role, his agent advised him to take it.
The character of Charlie Simms the scent of a woman was auditioned for by both Leonardo DiCaprio and Chris Rock. Just think about that…Dicaprio at the time was the new kid on Growing Pains and in the process of filming the show’s Thanksgiving special.
Jack Nicholson was first choice for Frank Slade and I can see him as the character until we get to “the scent of the woman”…the tango scene; Pacino sweeps you off your feet with his performance.
All in all Classic TV Movies gives this Thanksgiving holiday movie a 7 /10.
