ALICE
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1991 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule review: Rod Serling could have done a lot more
with this story in a lot less time. A Bloomingdale's sort of
woman gets magical means to examine her life. If you think
that is unbelievable, wait until you see what she decides to
do with the knowledge! Good actors in most roles but the
lead. One of Woody Allen's worst misfires. Rating: low 0
(-4 to +4).
Woody Allen's work is getting spotty these days. It was once true that an Allen film could be depended on to be worth seeing. He cannot be faulted for a CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS and at least HANNAH AND HER SISTERS was a popular success, but every once in a while one of his films goes really wrong. It is hard to imagine Allen thought he could make anything great out of the material in A MIDSUMMER SEX COMEDY. It was surprising the film was at all watchable. But BROADWAY DANNY ROSE left one feeling more could have been done with the material. And that feeling is a lot stronger with ALICE. This is a film that has an intriguing concept and a terrific cast, yet ends up as dry and uninteresting as its title.
The title character is played by Mia Farrow. Farrow's performances are an acquired taste, but to the best of my knowledge Woody Allen is the only one who has ever acquired it. Alice is the air-headed wife of a very successful executive when she is given magical means to examine her life, the lives of her friends, and her relationship with her family. What she discovers is that she does not like her husband, for good reason. She does like her sister, with whom she has had a difficult relationship. She sort of likes a man to whom she has been attracted (played by Joe Mantegna). Eventually her life comes together in a hokey and stereotyped way.
And how does she get the means to examine her life? She has back pain and goes to a mysterious doctor in Chinatown (played by Keye Luke, who incidentally died of a stroke on January 12). Dr. Yang treats her with opium and magic herbs that give her the power to see ghosts or become invisible or change her personality. In spite of the fact that Yang is benevolent, this is all Fu Manchu stuff, and Allen should be ashamed to write it into a film.
There are, of course, a few good lines in the script to remind us that Allen could be writing good comedy if that was what he wanted to do. It is hard to find a good role for Bernadette Peters, but she does have a very good comic scene in this film. And a single scene is all that many of the name actors got in this effort. Cameo actors include Gwen Verdon, Cybill Shepherd, Julie Kavner, Patrick O'Neal, and Bob Balaban. Alec Baldwin has a small role as a ghost who is usually seen in shadows. And there are a lot of shadows in this dark film--dark in color and often in tone. I rate this one a disappointing low 0 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
att!mtgzy!leeper
leeper@mtgzy.att.com
.
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews