January 19, 1993 -- ``Scent of a Woman'' bears some resemblance to a couple of other movies which rely so heavily on two characters, ``Sleuth'' and ``Deathtrap,'' but it is better than either of those.

``Scent of a Woman'' is about a retired, blind colonel, very well played by Al Pacino, who decides to have one last memorable weekend in New York before committing suicide. Chris O'Donnell is wonderful as a young boy hired to look after Pacino for the weekend and is dragged deeper and deeper into a very dangerous situation.

Pacino becomes O'Donnell's mentor and the young man begins to care for the irascible blind man and tries to stop Pacino's sad spiral toward suicide. The ending is unexpected and delightful.

The film takes a worn out story, similar to ``The Last Detail,'' and puts some interesting twists into it. The two lead performances are outstanding and probably will get at least one Academy Award nomination, but they can't quite sustain the film over the whole two and one-half hours.

The film does get a little thin and slow at times, but there are just enough other characters thrown in to pull it through, and as I said before, the ending is terrific. There are some laughs and very intense drama in this film and the dialogue is very well-written.

This is one of the best films of last year. It rates a B+.

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