Alice (1990)

When I first saw Alice, I didn't know it was a Woody Allen movie, but I can imagine if I'd been expecting the usual stammering joke fest, I might have wondered where Woody's influence went. He doesn't always make strict comedies, though, and this movie proves it.

Mia Farrow and William Hurt are married, have two children, and live the high-life. But Mia, in the title role, is unsatisfied and she doesn't know why. She visits a Chinese acupuncturist to help with some back pain and enters a journey of self-discovery.

Mia does a wonderful job in this slightly off-beat flick. Just as in The Purple Rose of Cairo when she rises above an unhappy marriage and finds herself, she expresses curiosity, sadness, hope, and invigoration all at the right times. I happen to be a Mia Farrow fan, so I was expecting to like this movie, but my mom doesn't like her nearly as much as I do, and she still really enjoyed Alice. As always in Woody Allen movies, there's a large cast, and this one includes Alec Baldwin, Blythe Danner, Cybill Shepherd, Joe Montegna, June Squibb, Julie Kavner, Bernadette Peters, Gwen Verdon, and Bob Balaban. Alice is thoughtful and sweet, and a great movie to watch when you're pondering the universe.

Fmovies: Alice is a happily married, upper-east side NY mother who has children, a maid, a babysitter and so on. She never thought she was unhappy until she meets a man at her children's school and begins thinking about having an affair with him. She goes to an herbal doctor, Dr Yang, who gives her herbs that, in a variety of ways, help her in her voyage of self-discovery.

I'm a keen fan of Woody Allen but hopefully not to the point where I can't call a dog a dog! This film is not a dog, but it is certainly very lifeless and dull, despite the imaginative plot device of Dr Yang's herbs. For one thing it is very difficult indeed to really care for Alice or her friends. Usually Allen manages to get over this by making them witty, deeper characters of just having his film move slickly. Here he can't get the pace up nor does he manage to give Alice anything resembling a real problem - unless you live the self-obsessed type of life she lives, in which case you may disagree. I struggled to really get into the story and it was only made harder by the fact that, although imaginative, the film wasn't really that funny.

The dialogue lacked the sort of imaginative sparkle that Allen films can usually be relied upon to have and it seemed to rely more on character than anything - which was a mistake as they are a fairly unsympathetic lot with more money than problems. Farrow tries her best to win the audience round but I never got more from Alice than a woman going through a midlife crisis of sorts. Mantegna and Hurt are both good actors but here they have nothing really to do and appear hamstrung by their characters. The only time I connected with Alice was when she danced with the ghost of her husband and we hear flashbacks to their marriage - at this point I saw a person. This is mostly due to a good performance by Baldwin in a minor role.

Overall this is typical Allen and I guess fans may love it for that. For me, I really didn't feel the film had any life to it and that it came across as flat and listless. The plot relies on characters who I couldn't either relate to or like, the dialogue isn't as funny as it should be even though the invisibility etc all make it seem more interesting. It's an OK film but I couldn't help but feel disappointed with the whole thing.

Alice (9 out of 10)

Woody took my disbelief and suspended it high above Manhattan, so I could peer down upon Mia's Chinese-herb-aided exploration of infidelity, family and Catholicism.

Allen here is clearly more in touch with both yin and yang than Kubrick in Eyes Wide Shut. A dream, not a nightmare; a trail, not a train track.

Alice fmovies. This movie is Mia Farrow's most magical moment. She glows in this film and as Woody Allen doesn't appear in it, and the film is not a heavy drama like Interiors or Another Woman, it will appeal to most audiences. The plot dabbles in mysticism and magic, similar to A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy and his segment in New York Stories, and is basically the story of a pampered woman in search of her identity. As Farrow's Alice is onscreen nearly every moment, the film couldn't have a better title. Alice begins to question her religious faith amidst an upper-class Manhattan setting and intellectual friends--in other words, she plays a female, Catholic version of the character Woody Allen has played in many other movies. There are not a lot of laughs in the movie but it still remains a classy winner, and a good start to Allen's '90s career. The big name cast (with the exception of William Hurt and Joe Mantegna) contribute cameo appearances, more or less; a casting move he would continue later in the decade. Not a movie that lends itself to countless viewings, like Manhattan or The Purple Rose of Cairo, but a definite charmer.

I think Woody Allen's 'Alice' is one of his most under-rated creations. This movie comes from his glory days before the scandal with his adopted daughter eclipsed his U.S. career.

Here is vintage Woody. A fecund imagination married to a masterful story-telling talent.

Like 'The Purple Rose of Cairo' (his masterpiece in my estimation) this is pure fantasy and it is delightful. Mia Farrow has done nothing finer, equal to her portrayal in Polanski's 'Rosemary's Baby' though of a completely different genre.

The little socio-political messages do not interfere with what is otherwise a nifty little love story between Alice and Joe Mantagna. Things don't quite work out in the end, as is usual in a Woody movie, but they are on the border of real-life possibility and add the bittersweet note that he is so good at.

I love this movie. It is not one of his rocking comedies like 'Broadway Danny Rose' but is a sweet vignette. It has overtones of 'Diary of Mad Housewife' but with a happier ending, for the housewife anyway.

The scenes with Keye Luke, Alice's magical Eastern physician are subtle and funny. The fantasy scenes with Alec Baldwin's dead lover and the wonderful Bernadette Peters' muse are enchanting. Peters' Bronx-like muse is especially funny.

Don't miss it.

Next to the Front, this contains Woody Allen's best ending. There's one striking visual image in the plot I still can't get out my head: Mia is cheating on William Hurt with Joseph Mantegna and the 2 of them are over at Mantegna's apartment, while a glorious downpour crashes against a huge glass window behind them. The sound of the rain hitting the window compliments their nervous dialogue perfectly. One of Farrow's nicest performances (the Purple Rose of Cairo is her most heartbreaking). And where else are you going to see invisibility in the same story as Mother Theresa? One of Allen's better cast jobs, too. Even the smallest roles are exquisite. Gwen Vernon as Farrow's old time movie star mother is sublime. And Bernadette Peters makes a great wise cracking muse.