Romancefest 8: Now, Voyager

Much has been said about Bette Davis' eyes, but as beautiful as they are, I'd say it's the rest of her face that makes her perfect for the lead role in NOW, VOYAGER.

As a repressed, shy, introverted, beat-down daughter of an over-protective socialite, Davis' somewhat pinched-up features, drawing her mouth, cheeks and nose into a little diamond in the middle of her face, allow a glamorous woman to look like she's always on the verge of cracking.

Davis has the gift of always looking like something's going on inside her head, which is part of the strength of NOW, VOYAGER, an early foray into psychological drama. Davis' young character, Charlotte Vale, of a prestigious Boston family, is driven to a nervous breakdown by her over-bearing mother (deliciously awful Gladys Cooper) and sent off to spend some time at a rest home run by Dr. Jaquith (Claude Rains). In his limited screen time, Rains does his usual job of being effortlessly likable, and Charlotte comes out the other side of the rest home a woman ready to take on a South American cruise in an effort to prove her new found independence and new set of social skills.

On the cruise, she meets Jerry Durrance (Paul Henreid of CASABLANCA fame), an architect in an unhappy marriage complete with a troubled teenage daughter. They hit it off together on a series of misadventures, and while Charlotte learns to open up to Jerry, Jerry sees a little of his own troubled daughter in Charlotte and grows emotionally as a result. Of course, when the cruise is over, so is the brief romance, and Charlotte returns to Boston a renewed woman, ready to do battle with her mother and take on Boston society in an attempt to find a suitable husband and start a life for herself.

This is where the unexpected third act starts, and it's the best part of the film. Anyone who thinks they know Hollywood formulas will be surprised by this passage, I think. Or, I might just be totally gullible. Even if you're not surprised by the final developments, the maturity and depth of them is so unique and sort of "above and beyond" for a film like this, that you can't help but be taken in.

A quick word on Paul Henreid: up until now, I'd only really seen him as the "other guy" in CASABLANCA, cast in a losing battle royale surrounded by cinema's greats -- Bogart, Bergman, Lorre, Rains, Veidt, Greenstreet. In that cast, and in his saintly, somewhat thankless CASABLANCA role, Henreid comes off as somewhat bland, almost an afterthought -- a character who is important to the plot but who doesn't make much of an emotional impression. In NOW, VOYAGER, freed of the political intrigue of CASABLANCA, Henreid is able let his charm work for him, and he comes off as a sort of Ralph Fiennes-ish character -- laid back, somewhat laconic, but all around nice -- his very effortlessness is what makes him attractive.

This movie doesn't have some other gimmick to get it from point A to point B. There isn't a crime or mystery thrown in, there isn't an important historical backdrop. It's simply the tale of Charlotte's growth as a character, and that's it. And that's refreshing.

Finally, NOW, VOYAGER has one of the greatest final lines of Cinematic history, a sentiment most people could stand to learn from:

"Don't let's ask for the moon. We have the stars."