Alice (1990)

"Alice" suffers from an undramatic storyline. There is drama alright, but it is immediately sugarcoated. So this movie wanders a bit between wanting to be a comedy (without great jokes, bummer) and wanting to be dramatic, but served with too much sugar on top. It is still charming, acting is great, soundtrack is lovely. It is still a lovely Woody Allen film, but the sum total just falls flat. The mood of this picture is almost identical to the boring life style Alice is leading. She has got everything she could desire for moneywise, but she feels unfulfilled. She visits a chinese doctor who prescribes for her a special herbal medicine, which makes her invisible. Yes, that sounds silly. It is silly, but this is suppose to be the fun part. And although being invisible triggers some jokes, it becomes somewhat childish too after the first gimmick of being invisible has worn off. However new opportunities open up with these invisible making chinese medicine. Her life becomes adventurous again. But not without having to face some losses too...As I said at the very start. This movie just doesnt reach the quality of Woody Allen's earlier work. There are much better dramatic and funny pictures of Woody Allen to be found. Watch "Hannah and her Sisters" for a much better drama about marital betrayal. Watch " Purple Rose of Cairo" for a much better romantic comedy. And dont forget about some other classics that you must give a try because director and writer Woody Allen has made such a wonderful line of work. Really anything from the eighties down to the seventies is worth watching. Halfway through the nineties Woody Allen lost some of his magic touch that sparkled so brightly in his older work. "Alice" is still a charming picture. More senior older people who are first time viewers will surely enjoy this movie. But for younger people who long for more romance or comedy or long for more true to life drama there are a lot of much better Woody Allen films out there.

Twilight Time offers another Woody Allen film for fans to enjoy or non-fans to disregard. Once more he teams of with life partner (at the time) Mia Farrow to present a tale that takes place in his familiar New York City. This time he takes the neurosis found in most of his films and gives them nods to both the Lewis Carroll classic ALICE IN WONDERLAND and Federico Fellini's JULIET OF THE SPIRITS.Alice (Farrow) is a well to do married woman who still feel empty inside. Her days are spent with the children being looked over by their nanny, shopping at the most expensive stores and with nothing more than small talk with her wealthy husband Doug (William Hurt). Picking up the kids one day she sees another parent there named Joe (Joe Mantegna) that she's attracted to.Her guilt over this attraction causes her to have back pains. Complaining of the backache to her friends while shopping one suggest that she try an acupuncturist and herbalist she know called Dr. Yang (Keye Luke in his final film performance). With nothing to lose Alice visits Yang who tells her the problem is not in her back but in her head and her heart. He provides her with some herbs to take at a precise time.The next day she picks up the kids after taking the herbs and meets Joe again while waiting. The herbs have left her uninhibited and she flirts mercilessly with Joe, making a date to meet the following day. She doesn't follow through with the date but returns to Dr. Yang who gives her new herbs to use, this time making her invisible.While invisible she watches Joe as he meets up with his ex-wife (Judy Davis) in her office and the two have a quickie there for old time's sake. This makes her glad she didn't go through with her meeting. It also sends her back to Dr. Yang who gives her different herbs, this time giving her the ability to see her old beau, Ed (Alec Baldwin), who died before they could marry. Ed suggest that she give Joe a chance and learn more about him.Each suggestion that Alice follows opens up new doors to what's really going on inside of her, her true emotions and feelings, rather than the superficial life she's been leaving. And each time she learns something new she returns to Dr. Yang who gives her more herbs that lead her in more directions with more people. Whether or not she will learn from her experiences and find happiness is what rounds out the film by the end credits.The story is interesting and inventive in its mix of mysticism, romance and light comedy. Each new herb yields yet another small story within the context of the larger whole, revealing as much about Alice to us as she learns about herself. The writing is some of the better that Allen has done from the films of his I've seen and it works well within the confines of the NYC world of the elite.The cinematography here is amazing. Where some movies do well either with interiors or exteriors but not always both, cinematographer Carlo di Palma (famous for shooting BLOW UP as well as many of Allen's later films) shows an expertise to be envied. His use of lighting and camera angles works in every shot.Perhaps the weakest element the film has is its lead actress, Farrow. I'll admit that my exposure to her performances is pretty limited to her appearances in other Allen films and ROSEMARY'S BABY. I've never found her to be a dynamic actress whose work I would want to seek out. But her performances in the films shot in NYC for Allen always feel the same to me. She always seems as if she's a weak willed woman with a constantly whining voice, always unsure of herself and more inclined to wallow in self-pity than anything else. Having recently watch Allen's MANHATTAN MURDER MYSTERY and learning that she had been intended to play the role Diane Keaton did I kept thinking that that movie would have felt completely different if that had happened. And not for the better. It doesn't matter if Alice finds herself here or not, the majority of the film has her so self-deprecating that it made it hard for me to feel for her.While critically acclaimed and nominated for various screenplay awards the movie was a box office flop. It should have done better because for the minor flaws in the film it was entertaining and a good representation of Allen's films. Perhaps it will find an audience on discs that will make up for that box office loss.Twilight Time is offering the film in a beautiful blu-ray presentation here in 1080p. Extras are slim to non-existent with just an isolated music & effects track and the original theatrical trailer. But fans of Allen will want to grab this up since like other Twilight Time releases it is limited to just 3,000 copies.

A Jack Rollins and Charles H. Joffe Production. Copyright 1990 and released by Orion Pictures Corp. New York opening: 25 December 1990. 106 minutes. (A superb DVD from M-G-M).SYNOPSIS: A moody housewife consults a Chinese herbalist with startling results.NOTES: Mia Farrow won the National Board of Review's award for the year's Best Actress. Final movie appearance of Keye Luke. It was his 200th film.COMMENT: Woody Allen at his very best! In fact, I'm particularly attached to this movie. When the opening credits ran by to the accompaniment of "Limehouse Blues", I knew I was in for a real treat, music-wise. As it turned out, however, the superb music score was overshadowed by the delightful fantasy of the screenplay and the brilliant performances delivered all the way down the line, but most especially by Mia Farrow, Joe Mantegna and Keye Luke.

Woody Allen is a cockeyed genius. But he makes unique films. This is a fantasy, a fairy tale, a comedy,a drama, a social documentary. It is engaging and distinctive with Allen's creative fingerprints all over it. The banal chatter, the simple yet well plotted shots, the occasional flights of wild fantasy, the innate feel for New York City and its unique lifestyle of faux sophistication. These are all Woody Allen trademarks and when you're that good, you're entitled to some personality quirks. Nobody comes close to capturing New York the way Allen does. Mia Farrow excels as a naive, confused, inexperienced and (not so) innocent wife. But it's Allen's vision that makes the movie. A keeper!