Alice (1990)

Genre

Comedy | Fantasy | Romance

Director

Woody Allen

Country

USA

Cast

Mia Farrow, Joe Mantegna, William Hurt, Blythe Danner, June Squibb, Holland Taylor, Peggy Miley, Keye Luke, Judy Davis, Alec Baldwin, Bernadette Peters, Cybill Shepherd, Gwen Verdon, Patrick O'Neal, Diane Salinger, Bob Balaban, Caroline Aaron, James Toback, Elle Macpherson, Lisa Marie, Rachel Miner, Kristy Graves, Laurie Nayber

Storyline

Alice Tate (Mia Farrow), a spoiled Manhattan housewife mother of two, re-evaluates her life after visiting Dr. Yang (Keye Luke), an oriental herbalist.

Opinion

After the spectacular "Crimes and Misdemeanors", Woody Allen returns to the rhythm of jazz and tango, and a modern "Alice in Wonderland" with "Alice", a light, and strange film that is a bit of a let down.

The script and the story are a well-balanced mix of comedy, drama and fantasy, and I'm actually impressed by the way Allen has handled the fantasy factor.

The plot dabbles in mysticism and magic, just like in "A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy" and his segment of "New York Stories", and sees this woman, Alice, that becomes invisible and cheats on her husband, and finds out that her husband also cheats on her. Unfortunately, it isn't particularly gripping or that hilarious, and since it relies on characters I couldn't either relate to or like, the film was a little disappointing.

But I guess there's nobody like Allen, because he is probably the only director that successfully manages to introduce philosophy in a story that isn't particularly engaging without being tedious, or falling into superficiality.

Mia Farrow is unexpectedly charming, and gives one of her nicest performances, and excels as the naive, confused, spoiled housewife. The supporting cast doesn't provide much support though: Joe Mantegna and William Hurt are both good actors but here they have really nothing to do here.