A blind, hard-drinking war veteran (Al Pacino) pays a timid college student (Chris O’Donnell) to accompany him on a weekend break in New York, where he plans to sample life’s luxuries over the Thanksgiving weekend.
However, the unworldly teenage escort is shocked to learn that at the end of their trip, his new friend plans to kill himself.
This lengthy melodrama is kept vibrantly alive and out of the clutches of sickly sentimentality by a towering Oscar-winning performance from Pacino, whether tangoing with Gabrielle Anwar, berating O’Donnell’s cowardly schoolmates or barking out his famous “hoo-ha” cough.
It’s loosely based on a 1974 Italian film of the same name by Dino Risi.
Lt Col Frank Slade
Al Pacino
Charlie Simms
Chris O’Donnell
Mr Trask
James Rebhorn
Donna
Gabrielle Anwar
George Willis Jr
Philip Seymour Hoffman
WR Slade
Richard Venture
Randy
Bradley Whitford
Officer Gore
Ron Eldard
Christine Downes
Frances Conroy
Karen Rossi
Sally Murphy
Harry Havemeyer
Nicholas Sadler
Director
Martin Brest
