Most critics respond warmly to Scent of a Woman, with praise concentrated on Al Pacino’s performance as the abrasive, unhappy blind colonel. The reviews repeatedly credit his shifts between bullying, charm and despair with making a familiar story involving an older man and a teenager compelling, even when its plotting strains belief. The interplay between the leads also earns approval, with Chris O’Donnell’s quieter contribution providing support for a performance that dominates the film.
The reservations centre on length, contrivance and sentimentality, though critics differ considerably over how much these matter. Some find Pacino sufficiently entertaining to carry the predictable material; Variety argues that the film stretches its modest premise too far. The New Yorker offers a more fundamental dissent: it finds Pacino’s characterisation so chilling and emotionally complex that the story’s reassuring moral framework cannot adequately contain it.