This lengthy melodrama is kept vibrantly alive and out of the clutches of sickly sentimentality by a towering Oscar-winning performance from Al Pacino. He plays the blind ex-soldier who heads for New York to sample life's luxuries over the Thanksgiving weekend. As his unworldly teenage escort, Chris O'Donnell is quietly impressive, but it's Pacino's picture, whether tangoing with Gabrielle Anwar, berating O'Donnell's cowardly schoolmates or barking out his famous "hoo-ha" cough. It's loosely based on Dino Risi's 1974 Italian film of the same name.

Charlie Simms is a student at a private preparatory school who comes from a poor family. To earn the money for his flight home to Gresham, Oregon for Christmas, Charlie takes a job over Thanksgiving looking after retired U.S. Army officer Lieutenant Colonel Frank Slade, a cantankerous middle-aged man who lives with his niece and her family.