Now, Voyager (1942) [G] ****

A film review by David Cornelius for DVDTalk.com on Mar. 26, 2010.

Bette Davis earned yet another Oscar nod for her role in Now, Voyager, and it's easy to see why: here is yet another of those movies where the dowdy loner transforms into a radiant beauty, but Davis makes certain that we believe her completely as the ugly duckling. There's some makeup trickery there, to be sure, but it's mostly in her rich performance, a matter of attitude that slowly reveals the looker underneath - and even then, Davis maintains an uncertainty that suggests the new look is merely cosmetic, not deep enough to reach her true personality.

Around this stunning role is built a rather ridiculous story: Davis plays a spinster raised under the heavy thumb of an oppressive mother (Gladys Cooper). With the help of psychiatrist Claude Rains, she manages to escape her mother's grasp and reinvents herself, meeting the charming Paul Henreid on a cruise.

But he is married, and for an ordinary film, this would be enough. In fact, it's already plenty. But the script keeps going and going, and soon Davis becomes something of a nurse to Henreid's dowdy daughter (Janis Wilson), perhaps hoping to rescue the girl before the girl's life turns out like her own - although Henreid doesn't know it.

It's all far more complicated than it needs to be, and at two hours, the story could stand a trim or two. Then again, what would you cut? The soap opera of the opening scenes sets the stage for all that follows, and what follows is lovely enough that we can't stand to lose it. The film is most famous for the scene where Henreid lights two cigarettes at once, but more engaging are the moments between Bette Davis and Janis Wilson, two broken girls coming out of their shells together.

Labels: drama, period, romance
IMDb 78/100 
MetaScore (critics=70, viewers=67) 
RottenTomatoes Averages (critics=91, viewers=86)
Blu-ray