Now, Voyager (Keepcase)
by Irving Rapper
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Bette Davis, Bonita Granville, Claude Rains, Gladys Cooper, Paul HenreidDirector: Irving Rapper
Brand: Warner Brothers
Cinematographer: Sol Polito
Editor: Warren Low
Producer: Hal B. Wallis
Writer: Casey Robinson
Writer: Olive Higgins Prouty
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; Portuguese (Original Language); English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Portuguese (Subtitled)
Format: Closed-captioned, DVD-Video, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 117 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-06-14
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Warner Home Video
Movie Reviews of Now, Voyager (Keepcase)
Movie Review: Yes, truly... an extremely ravishing film from Warner Bros., BUT...
Summary: 5 Stars
I wonder if this film REALLY ends as beautifully... and as positively, as so many of its viewers are led to believe... or are we swept-along (manipulated) by the outstanding performances, the high-romanticism of the film and/or its truly outstanding and iconic musical score ? (Ms.Davis always was concerned that Max Steiner's musical accompaniment would dominate the scene, subjugating her performance; at the end of DarkVictory, Ms.Davis, "on behalf" of her character, Judith, now blind, is reputed to have asked the director, "now is Max Steiner going to go up these stairs... or am I ?" )
None of this is by-means of diminishing the outstanding performances this film offers, and that of Ms.Davis must be acknowledged as perhaps her most incandescently splendid. She gives us a glimpse into at least four separate segments of Charlotte Vale's ever-evolving life, each one refined and complete unto itself, and each different one from the other, almost as if a different actor were portraying each chronologically separate facet of one single life: the young Charlotte on the steamship journey with her mother... so young, pretty and fresh, her life ahead of her; the crushed-down "Aunt Charlotte" of middle-age, when she has become so dominated by her ruthless mother as to become lost with-in herself... a dowdy shadow awaiting her inevitable nervous breakdown; the fledgling Charlotte reclaiming, hesitatingly, her life while at Cascade under the guidance of good Dr,Jacquiff; the just-reborn Charlotte, out on-her-own, really, for the first time in her life, on the post-Cascade ocean voyage to South America, during which she meets Jerry; the stronger... and growing ever-increasing so, self-confident and self-reliant independent woman, returning to Boston (and to the tyranny of her mother), much more the graceful swan than the ugly duckling of before; and perhaps finally, the "healed" Charlotte, after re-raising/re-parenting herself, by serving as the nurturing, supportive and loving surrogate mother-figure to Tina... certainly the mother-figure Charlotte, herself, had never had.
... and here is the problem: I say "the `healed' Charlotte" fully-believing that Charlotte will never be completely healed... that it would not be possible that she become completely healed... ever. Her damage is rooted far too deep, as it started, methodically, to be put in-place by her mother from early in Charlotte's life, and that it would, by now, be imprinted so very deeply into her very fiber as to be part of who she is... and who she will always be. The "healed" Charlotte will go-forward in life, and from this point onward, less crippled than she was, and though she may now walk on her own,her healing cannot be complete, nor can it make-up for the damage that was in-place from so very long before. Sadly, like so many ruined people, her destiny was put in-place and molded by parental abuse; she is better than she was... much better, but I believe that Charlotte will never know happiness, as it is a state with which she is totally unfamiliar; it is alien to her. As such, she will reject, by-rote, any opportunity to "be happy"; she understands abuse... but not kindness, not compassion and certainly not love. And, to keep herself safe from happiness...
Charlotte creates a "boxed-in" situation for herself...
Selflessly caring for and dedicated to the traumatized Tina ( who IS still young enough to be "saved"), the daughter of her love, Jerry, Charlotte understands that she and Jerry can never be together, as her surrogate parenting of Tina forbids such a relationship with her lover as inappropriate.The good Dr.Jacquiff requires acceptance of this understanding between Charlotte and Jerry as the condition by-which Charlotte may continue in her role as Tina's "mother". As such, Charlotte is "saved" from ever having to become too close to Jerry... "saved" from ever being happy with the man she loves.
I also have a problem with Jerry...
... smooth, charming and handsome to be sure, and very clever with cigarettes, but also selfish and self-absorbed... and he's a bit too much the self-righteous martyr for my taste. His weak and stilted protestation alluding to Charlotte's self-sacrifice to Tina (by-which he is all but assured that Charlotte will remain unattached to any other man, as the strong link of Tina will always bind Charlotte to him), is pure selfishness and thoughtlessness. Charlotte will remain in a kind of emotional "no man's land", neither here, nor there, linked to Jerry... but not ever really connected to him. Charlotte has relegated herself into an illusionary safety zone of a self-imposed emotional isolation.
Yes, to be certain, Now,Voyager is a truly iconic film, strongly retaining its well-deserved worthiness for almost seventy years; it is replete with superb performances, led by Ms.Davis, admirably foiled by Gladys Cooper as her tyrant of a mother, et al . However... I still wonder if this wonderful film leads the viewer to a false sense of "happy ending"... by means of the very excellence that has ensured its place in cinematic history.
Summary of Now, Voyager (Keepcase)
A tender love story, a taut psychological drama, an inspiring tale of physical and spiritual transformation. Now, Voyager is all three, as well as a Bette Davis career milestone, resulting in her sixth Best Actress Oscar nomination. She magically plays Charlotte Vale, a spinster who defies her domineering mother (fellow Oscar nominee Gladys Cooper) to discover love, heartbreak and eventual contentment. More magic is generated by a top-notch ensemble, Max Steiner?s Academy Award-winning score and an improvised moment by Paul Henreid that became an instant classic: he lights two cigarettes at once and hands one to Davis. For the ultimate in romantic melodrama, it?s Now Voyager now, then and forever.In this 1942 melodrama, founded on the novel by Olivia Higgins Prouty (who also wrote the novel on which Stella Dallas was based), Bette Davis stars as Charlotte Vale, a dowdy, repressed woman who, overwhelmed by her domineering mother, is on the verge of a nervous breakdown. She finds help at a sanitarium from a kind psychiatrist (Claude Rains), who turns her into a beautiful, confident woman. As a new person, she takes a pleasure cruise, where she meets Jerry (Paul Henreid), an architect trapped in an unhappy marriage, saddled with a troubled daughter. The two fall in love, but, of course, the romance is doomed. Yet their paths cross on occasion, and, despite their feelings, Charlotte finds satisfaction in helping Jerry's depressed child. The film will seem familiar to new viewers--the campy style was the pattern for many tearjerkers to come, and its most famous line has been oft repeated ("Don't ask for the moon--we have the stars"). But the heartstrings are tugged, and as Paul Henreid chivalrously lights two cigarettes and hands one over to the doleful-eyed Davis, pull out the box of tissues--you're gonna need 'em. --Jenny Brown
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