This Bette Davis melodrama is about motherhood. In it, she plays a woman called Charlotte Vale who has been kept repressed by her monstrous mother. Via a kindly psychiatrist she begins a process of healing by slowly entering the adult world. This begins with a love affair on a cruise ship and ends with her becoming a surrogate mother to a troubled child, who reminds her of her younger self.
The relationship between mother and child is a central theme. Where Charlotte's real mother is an overbearing bully, Charlotte cultivates a loving relationship with the girl she takes under her wing. She gains fulfilment in this mother role, so much so that she chooses this over romantic love. This of course, makes the ending to Now, Voyager a little unorthodox. The two lovers do not embrace and give the audience closure. Instead, we are left with a situation that looks like it will be fraught with unresolved issues. Not a typical happy ending at all.
Gladys Cooper was particularly excellent here as the demonic mother figure. She was a pretty intense and scary presence and was surely worthy of her best supporting Oscar nomination. While Bette Davis, Claude Rains and Paul Henreid are good also. I'm not hugely familiar with the Hollywood melodrama, so I can't really put this film into too much of a context, although I am led to believe that this is one of the best of its kind.
The relationship between mother and child is a central theme. Where Charlotte's real mother is an overbearing bully, Charlotte cultivates a loving relationship with the girl she takes under her wing. She gains fulfilment in this mother role, so much so that she chooses this over romantic love. This of course, makes the ending to Now, Voyager a little unorthodox. The two lovers do not embrace and give the audience closure. Instead, we are left with a situation that looks like it will be fraught with unresolved issues. Not a typical happy ending at all.
Gladys Cooper was particularly excellent here as the demonic mother figure. She was a pretty intense and scary presence and was surely worthy of her best supporting Oscar nomination. While Bette Davis, Claude Rains and Paul Henreid are good also. I'm not hugely familiar with the Hollywood melodrama, so I can't really put this film into too much of a context, although I am led to believe that this is one of the best of its kind.