Now Voyager

Composite Score: 81.37

Starring: Bette Davis, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Gladys Cooper, and John Loder

Director: Irving Rapper

Writers: Casey Robinson and Olive Higgins Prouty

Genres: Drama, Romance

MPAA Rating: Passed

Box Office: $10,390 worldwide

Why should you Watch This Film?

                Now Voyager tells the story of a spinster (Bette Davis) who gets therapy, travels the world, falls in love with a married man, and ends up causing her oppressive mother to have a heart attack – an all-around roller coaster of emotions throughout with very little predictability, which was nice. Bette Davis plays Charlotte Vale, the youngest daughter of the “Boston Vales” who has yet to marry in her “old age” – mid to late 30s. Her story is compelling, touching on issues of family trauma and mental health. For a film made in the 1940s, it is surprisingly progressive on issues of mental health care and awareness and also on women’s rights and female empowerment. Davis’s performance and that of Gladys Cooper as her mother drive the film forward and make it worth watching.

Why shouldn’t you Watch This Film?

                The unpredictability of the film keeps the story unnecessarily bogged down with strange romance subplots and odd relational choices. From the moment Charlotte meets her love interest Jerry, played by Paul Henreid, her life goes through a series of wild twists and turns. Jerry first shows her a picture of his family, reveling that he is married, though he continues spending pretty intimate time together with her. Upon seeing an old photograph of Charlotte’s family, he inadvertently calls her fat and ugly, but she forgives him (I think?) and continues falling in love with him, I guess because he has an ugly daughter that she feels bad for, who knows. At one point during their time in Brazil, they are lost in a taxi and the taxi drives off a cliff while trying to turn around – absolutely wild moments all within the first 45 minutes of the almost 2-hour film. Her return home and leave-taking of Jerry leads only into more unpredictable and strange happenings. She begins by challenging her overbearing mother who responds by throwing herself down the stairs, spraining an ankle. As her time in Boston continues, an engagement with the son of one of Boston’s other wealthy families – Elliot Livingston played by John Loder – comes up and is then broken, leading her mother to die of a heart attack. Her mother’s death drives Charlotte back to the center where she received treatment for her mental health struggles where she then meets the ugly daughter of Jerry and becomes her nurse, with no official training or background check and full approval from both Jerry and Dr. Jaquith, the proprietor of the center! Even the film’s conclusion is wild, at least from a modern perspective. Jerry and Charlotte agree to love each other while Jerry lives with his wife and older daughter, allowing his “ugly” daughter Tina to live with Charlotte, who he will then visit from time to time, and then they all lived happily ever after or something. I know this is a long explanation, but I am trying to process and perhaps understand the story choices from this film right now, and it’s just not making a lot of sense.

                Also, if you have body image issues, please be aware that this film does not have healthy body standards for women. At the start of the film, Charlotte is called fat because she isn’t a size 2 or smaller, and this is by both her mother, herself, her niece, and even Jerry. She is by no means obese or even at an unhealthy body weight by any standard I could imagine. She is later praised by her relatives for losing 25 pounds in 6 months, bringing her to a more acceptable size or something – I don’t really know. For me watching, it was not a noticeable change in size, they just put her in more form-fitting clothes to highlight a smaller waist, which furthers a somewhat unhealthy body image trope.

So wait, why should you Watch This Film?

                Weird story choices and problematic body image messaging aside, this film has its high points. Most notably in its promotion of independent females, commentary on family trauma, and the performances of its leading ladies. Throughout the film, Charlotte seeks romance and marriage because those are things that she has been denied because she has an overbearing mother and was “ugly”, but eventually she finds that the satisfaction that she has been seeking exists for her in independence from not just her mother, but from men as well. Obviously, it’s the 1940s, so she still loves Jerry at the end of the film and is in a technically adulterous relationship with him, but her focus is on maintaining her new healthy outlook on life and helping other girls like her recover from familial trauma, specifically Jerry’s daughter Tina. This messaging is positive and relatively progressive for a mid-century film.

                The story’s focus on Charlotte’s depressive states and panic attacks are obviously limited by the 1940s understanding of mental health, but their connection to her trauma at the hands of an overbearing mother is still resonant today – just look at the success of the film Encanto if you don’t believe me. Family trauma from overbearing parents is a relatively universal theme that always resonates when it is explored. In Now Voyager, the resolution of the conflict is not necessarily the positive reconciliation that we might want from a film featuring such trauma so heavily, but it still gives the viewer hope. Though Charlotte fails to reconcile with her mother before her death (a very realistic take on broken family relationships, if dismal), the audience does see her seeking to break the cycle of generational trauma by taking in another girl suffering from the same treatment and working to help her reach a more positive place in life through forging a positive maternal relationship for her.

                Finally, the performances delivered by both Davis and Cooper in this film are phenomenal. Davis transitions from self-loathing to self-confident and back again so well over the course of her character’s development in the film. She plays hesitant daughter, confident debutante, secret lover, and maternal nursemaid each so well that her nomination for best leading actress from the Oscars is easily understandable. Gladys Cooper as the overbearing mother plays the role so well. She is intimidating but frail, loathsome but sympathetic, and overbearing but genuine. Her performance also garnered an Oscar nomination, again well-deserved.

Strong female performances, relatable family issues, and a positive portrayal of female independence help this film overcome certain problematic norms and confusing storytelling to make it on the list of Greatest Films of All Time. While it might not be at the top of a must-watch list, you should certainly give it a shot.