Scent of a Woman (1992)
"You're not rotten, you're in pain."
How many people have felt used by the system only to be left with prolonged pain? Misunderstood and led to believe that we don't deserve space anymore?
That's Frank. Frank was well-lived, he could lead a tango and assemble a gun with his eyes closed. Or blind. What's the difference?
Frank is unloved, so he thought.
He does not consider the love from his daughter, love. He felt burden. He did not belong to this world. His world was New York City, fancy restaurants that required a jacket and kept the Jack Daniels flowing, escorts easily organized by limousine drivers...his world should be glamorous, even if he couldn't see them.
The system might have left him with absolutely nothing but a load of pension cash yet the universe was not done with him.
Somewhere came Charlie.
Charlie's world was loneliness and the system took him in. He could see but he couldn't see the point of it all. He is a good student. He followed the rules, trusted the rich and famous, kept his head down always and worked hard to manage bare minimum living standards. He wasn't happy but he wasn't in pain either. It's a comfortable space to be in - you don't know what you don't know.
Charlie meets Frank. Frank encountered Charlie. This combo couldn't get weirder than an April Fool's joke. Yet, it stuck. A strong bond formed over the weekend when for the first time, Charlie saw what pain could do, felt unhappiness in real time while Frank got his egotistic ass handed over by kindness, integrity, selflessness and pure human love. The two were a match made in heaven.
They saved each other; it was a happy ending.
This movie shows that hurt people hurt people. We might not all be inherently born good but our environment shapes us. Frank grew up with family members who swept things under the rug and verbally hurt each other. He went to war and saw younger man than he died, lives gone before they began. He might have even felt that he was more important because unlike them, he lived, he learnt and was in a position of influence until it was all violently taken away from him. It is unreasonable then for him to suddenly become that benevolent, accepting, retied grandfather while trying to heal. Because Frank was blinded both physically and mentally, he couldn't see what he craved for was actually closer than he could ever have imagined. His sole driving force in life was to find a woman whom will want to spend time with him as he is. He flew all the way to New York in search of her because all he knew was New York has the finest things in life, so should be the women. Little did he know that the woman of his dreams was so close to home, teaching Charlie, and all it took was for him to stand up for things outside of his own benefit. Meaning, it's not all about him. So in the end, Frank's selflessness, integrity, kindness and pure human love saved both Charlie and himself.
Oh, it really was a beautiful, happy ending.