Now, Voyager (1942)
Grade: 77
"Now, Voyager" is a very good romance film. The script, cast and direction is excellent, and if the story is a bit dramatic at times, it does succeed in maintaining interest. It is probably true that women will enjoy the film more than men, but "Now, Voyager" is good enough to merit viewing by anyone.
Bette Davis plays the emotionally repressed daughter of a wealthy elderly matriarch (Gladys Cooper). Cooper's cruelty and strict upbringing results in Davis going to a sanitarium. Separated from her mother and treated by a doctor (Claude Rains), Davis begins an integration into the real world, soon starting a romance with unhappily married Paul Henreid. Davis suddenly becomes extroverted and popular.
Davis returns home, and begins a battle of wills with her mother, who wants her to return to her role as servant and repressed spinster. Davis romances wealthy socialite John Loder, but of course is still in love with Henreid. Later, she practically adopts Henreid's withdrawn daughter (Janis Wilson), whom she identifies with.
"Now, Voyager" has some flaws. Davis' character is supposed to be overweight in the first part of the film, but she is her usual rail-thin self. Davis' off-camera transformation from sulking loner to glib socialite comes too quickly and easily. The mother's sudden death from an argument with Davis is a plot contrivance. She is emotionally too thick-skinned to be devastated by anything that Davis would say.
Still, "Now, Voyager" (the title comes from a Walt Whitman poem) is a very good movie. Davis is very good, and it helps that her character has depth and, unlike many of her later film roles, does not have "evil" characteristics. Wilson is excellent as the troubled daughter, and Rains makes the most of his minor supporting role. Davis and Cooper were nominated for Academy Awards.
kollers@mpsi.net http://members.tripod.com/~Brian_Koller/movies.html
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