Release Year: 1942
Director: Irving Rapper
*****
What a glorious transformation Bette Davis makes about a half hour into Now, Voyager, a film that desperately tries to pack too much information into a two hour running time. The actress morphs from a frumpy spinster aunt to a gorgeous, self assured woman under the tutelage of a psychiatrist. In the ensuing years, she learns about standing up for herself while continuing to put other people first.
Aside from Davis' dazzling transformation, only one thing holds the production back from being a great film: it moves entirely too fast. As a viewer, we are treated to very small snippets of what psychiatrist Dr. Jaquitch (Claude Rains) does to build Charlotte into a woman. What are the "magic words"? What does he channel and bring to the surface? Surely, leaving her mother's house is a major part of the cure (Mother is an old world, vindictive, mean spirited woman), but there has to be something more, since dropping all the problems at Mother's feet is doing a disservice to her.
As the story progresses, Charlotte begins a love affair with a married man on a cruise (Jerry Durrance, played by Paul Henreid). It's unclear how far their relationship goes, but they do spend a great deal of time together. Many years later, Charlotte returns to her psychiatrist's compound for more rest, yet finds her true calling: as a friend to at least one person who doesn't have a friend.
The quarrels between Charlotte and her mother are all too brief and that's a pity since the real fire of the film is in those scenes. We want to see the verbal back and forth, Charlotte standing up for herself and the look of absolute disgust on Mother's face. At its core, Now, Voyager is a love story, I suppose, but those are the scenes that work the least. I never found myself caring about Charlotte and her fiancee or Jerry. The motivation for Mother to believe she should run Charlotte's life is where my attention was. Whatever faults the film has, it's well worth watching if only for Bette Davis. She doesn't look as cynical as she does in other fare (All About Eve, for instance) but there is still the independent streak we know her for.