Laikals The greatest movie ever made..!

FeistyUpper If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Huievest Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

Plustown A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

Antonius Block This film tugs on a few different heartstrings, with themes of a domineering mother, being an awkward, depressed young person, finding a deep connection and love with someone who can't be yours, and then personally evolving to the point of being able to transcend all of that, and finding one's path. It's really quite a touching film, and Bette Davis turns in another brilliant performance. The supporting cast around her is strong as well, and features Gladys Cooper (her mother), Paul Henreid (her lover), Claude Rains (her wise doctor). And, how fascinating is it that both Henreid and Rains began filming Casalanca immediately afterwards; clearly a great year for them.The film scores points for me for having its title come from a Walt Whitman line in 'Leaves of Grass': "The untold want by life and land ne'er granted; Now, Voyager sail thou forth, to seek and find," which is appropriate. The film speaks to being honest with oneself, to one's identity, as well as to the person you love, even if it's complicated. I loved the little touches of the inner voice that director Irving Rapper employs, which helps underscore this.It's heartwarming to see how those in love make each other better people. She begins to bloom, and radiate confidence after receiving simple acts of kindness and appreciation. He returns to his passion, architecture, and is more empathetic and understanding of his troubled daughter. The scene where they meet by chance again at a party, and have a conversation interlaced with whispered remarks of tenderness (such as her saying to him she could "cry with pride" over him following his dream) is lovely.At the same time, she's not defined by him, or dependent on him. In fact, the movie is a celebration of independence, and shows how it can be done gracefully and with class. Her strength come through in so many ways: in standing up to her mother, determining her path with another suitor, asserting herself with her old doctor, and ultimately deciding the terms she'll have her relationship with Henreid on. While she admits that "I've just been a big sentimental fool. It's a tendency I have," she also calmly says "Please let me go" when a big romantic moment threatens to sweep her away.The story about his child was touching, as we see Davis help her, as she was once helped, but I thought this part dragged on too long, and needed tightening up. It felt overly melodramatic and false; for one thing, where was the mother? There was a much earlier scene with a Brazilian taxi driver that got silly, and should have been left on the cutting room floor as well. On the other hand, I loved those last lines. He asks her, "And will you be happy, Charlotte?" And she responds "Oh Jerry, don't let's ask for the moon. We have the stars." How brilliant that line is; there is something larger than ourselves, larger than what others consider happiness.

Prismark10 Now, Voyager stars Bette Davis as Charlotte Vale. An ugly duckling with a domineering mother (Gladys Cooper) who has kept her repressed.With the help of Dr Jaquith (Claude Rains) a kindly psychiatrist in his sanitarium, she transforms from a dowdy frump to an elegant woman who goes on a cruise to establish her independence. She begins a tentative love affair with a fellow passenger, Jerry Durrance (Paul Henreid) who is also unhappily married. When Charlotte returns he arrives home, her family is stunned by the dramatic changes in her appearance and her mother is determined to destroy her confidence as well as her independence.When her mother dies, Charlotte returns to the sanitarium because of guilt where she helps out a young girl with low self esteem and confidence issues. She turns out to be Jerry's daughter, by the end both Jerry and Charlotte seem to settle for a platonic affair.This is a soapy melodrama with what looks like a gay subtext. Charlotte even turns down a proposal of a marriage of convenience from another suitor.However this is a soggy script where nothing much happens in its running time once Charlotte has transformed. This is because the Hays Code makes it difficult for Charlotte to have a happy ending with an adulterous liaison with a married man. At least the cast have enough chemistry to carry off the film.

zardoz-13 The Warner Brothers release "Now, Voyager" ranks as one of the greatest 'make-over' movie in cinematic history. Director Irving Rapper's classic black & white romantic melodrama represents a splendid example of a movie whose theme is women versus women. Women make more trouble for women in this soap operatic saga. A young, impressionable woman named Charlotte Vale suffers under the relentless tyranny of her misguided mother Mrs. Henry Vale who has planned Charlotte's very move, right now to marriage to the man appropriate to her social station in life. Charlotte is withering away under her mother's dictatorial foot when salvation arrives in the person of a pipe-smoking Dr. Jaquith (Claude Rains of "Casablanca") who convinces Charlotte's mother to allow him to treat her at his sanitarium. Mrs. Vale relents and allows Jaquith to take Charlotte into his care. Surprising enough, Charlotte erupts from a cocoon of deprivation and blossoms into a young woman. Against Mrs. Vale's wishes, Charlotte is allowed to board a cruise ship and experience life. She becomes the toast of the cruise ship and meets a lonely husband, Jerry Durrance (Paul Henreid of "Casablanca"), and the two of them become lifelong friends. At one point during the cruise, Charlotte and Jerry smoke cigarettes. This scene supposedly started a practice for the man to light both cigarettes and hand one to the woman. This is just one of the many Bette Davis movies that everybody needs to watch.

Marcin Kukuczka Along with DECEPTION by Irving Rapper, NOW VOYAGER, the title of which is derived from Walt Whitman's poem "Leaves of grass," is clearly one of Bette Davis' most crucial films from the time of her contract with Warner Brothers Studio. However, "a highly narcotic, swoon inducing romance in the Bette Davis canon," as New York Times labeled the movie, brings out something widely known by the television generations: a daughter on the verge of nervous breakdown, desperate to find her independence, struggling to escape her monstrous, forbidding mother in order to, at last, seek and find a home of her own, a man of her own and a child of her own. Eager to find a way out, she receives help from a psychiatrist. Consequently, much to her mother's dismay, she comes to a moment when she is not afraid of being herself. Nothing new...indeed...because, as it has also been the case with DECEPTION, the backbone is pure soap opera. What makes us ignore the flaws derived from this very sort of the perceptions such content evokes is the artistry at multiple levels, Hollywood's most powerful tool of illusion and magnetism, the film is thoroughly supplied with.First and foremost, this artistry resides in the performances. Bette Davis convincingly portrays a character who undergoes, I can allow myself this word, metamorphosis. From being a person who is 'alone in all ways,' she depicts a change prompted and wonderfully motivated by Dr Jasquith (Claude Rains). Although this 'metamorphosis' may occur banal due to diminishing a human to mere looks, fashionable clothes and sentimental exclamation of being content with stars...not asking for the moon, her moments are played with ease and the desirable insight necessary in the role of that sort. She does not make her character laughable and, at the same time, instills sufficient amount of tear jerking euphoria. From the sentimental introduction of her character with the drops of rain behind the window to the moonlit moments of romance constitute a thoroughly convincing depiction.Her leading men, Claude Rains and Paul Henreid, differ considerably and, yet, create vibrant characters of lasting significance. The versatile actor, Claude Rains, skillfully portrays the psychological essence of the movie (1942 was too early to talk about psychoanalyzing characters and yet, we can find certain tendencies). He is, consequently, easily identified with and very likable. The romantic looking actor Paul Henreid, though not placed in sheer rivalry against Rains' character as it is the case of DECEPTION, is again provided with European flair. The much appraised scene of the two (Bette and Paul) lighting a cigarette echoes the never ending power of illusion within the same spirits but different methods of Hollywood.Among the supporting cast, a mention must be made of Gladys Cooper who portrays the villainous manipulative mother - someone who could equally display a powerful insight under Hitchcock's guidance. Nominated for the Best Supporting Actress at the Academy Awards, Ms Cooper delivers a tremendous portrayal of a domineering personality. In one scene, thanks to the gorgeous camera-work, we see the back of her hand encompassing the foreground of the screen frame while Bette Davis' character remains in the background. One of the milestone 'evil incarnates' on screen with the overtone of critical approach towards cruel family ties, of course.The artistry's triumph also lies in the entire visual subtlety of the movie – all is neat and elegant. Since some viewers consider this film to be a woman's picture or a 'weenie,' these interiors almost heaped with decorations of highest caliber. Apart from some public events' scenes, consider the Rio sequence which cleverly combines charm with humor and incorporates a variety of elements that result in truly aesthetic viewing experience.In that relation, there is a need to give full credit to Max Steiner for his fabulous music score filled with dynamic tensions and powerful parallels with characters' feelings. Reminiscing certain classical pieces moderated and adapted to the cinematic needs (just to name Tschaikovsky), he deservedly won the award.To sum up, it is undeniably one of the most 'artistic' novellas on screen where you not only have Bette Davis' eyes but display of powerful performances, stunning cinematography, memorable score and direction of great caliber. One of those precious products of old Hollywood that is no more. Worth seeking and finding.