Alice (1990) USA
Alice Image Cover
Additional Images
Director:Woody Allen
Studio:MGM (Video & DVD)
Producer:Charles H. Joffe, Helen Robin, Jack Rollins, Jane Read Martin, Joseph Hartwick, Robert Greenhut
Writer:Woody Allen
Rating:3.5
Rated:PG-13
Date Added:2006-03-27
ASIN:B00005AUJH
UPC:0027616862655
Price:$14.95
Awards:Nominated for Oscar. Another 1 win & 4 nominations
Genre:Satire
Release:2001-05-06
IMDb:0099012
Duration:106
Picture Format:Widescreen
Aspect Ratio:1.85:1
Sound:Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Languages:English, Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono, French, Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono, Spanish, Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Subtitles:Spanish, French
Features:Anamorphic
Subtitled
Woody Allen  ...  (Director)
Woody Allen  ...  (Writer)
 
Mia Farrow  ...  Alice Tate
Alec Baldwin  ...  Ed
Blythe Danner  ...  Dorothy
Judy Davis  ...  Vicki
William Hurt  ...  Doug Tate
Keye Luke  ...  Dr. Yang
Joe Mantegna  ...  Joe
Bernadette Peters  ...  Muse
Cybill Shepherd  ...  Nancy Brill
Gwen Verdon  ...  Alice's Mother
Patrick O'Neal  ...  Alice's Father
Holland Taylor  ...  Helen
Julie Kavner  ...  Decorator
June Squibb  ...  Hilda
Marceline Hugot  ...  Monica
Dylan O'Sullivan Farrow  ...  Kate
Matthew H. Williamson  ...  Dennis (as Matt Williamson)
Billy Taylor  ...  Trainer
Michael-Vaughn Sullivan  ...  Hairstylist
Robin Bartlett  ...  Nina
Linda Wallem  ...  Penny
Gina Gallagher  ...  Joe's Daughter
Patience Moore  ...  School Teacher
Summary: Alice is one of Woody Allen's more grounded whimsies, though viewers with a low tolerance for feyness might miss it. Here goes Mia Farrow again as a nattering Manhattanite with a girlie-girlie voice and a well-to-do husband of 16 years (a stockbroker played by William Hurt) who doesn't always notice whether she's in the room. One day a back pain sends her up a dim staircase in Chinatown to see an acupuncturist (the valedictory role of the beloved Keye Luke). He has quite a bag of tricks--including hypnosis and a versatile assortment of herbal teas--and enough insight to recognize that Alice's troubles lie somewhere other than her sacroiliac. Under Dr. Yang's ministrations, Alice goes on a Wonderland voyage through her own life, fantasizing about having an affair with a dusky stranger (Joe Mantegna), flitting about Manhattan as an invisible spirit, and--most unlikely of all--talking straight with her various relatives, past and present.
Like so many Allen films, Alice wavers between scenes imagined with deftness and precision (like Farrow and Mantegna's astonished mutual seduction) and other scenes and notions that are merely touched upon and then abandoned before they can develop any rhythm and complexity, persuade you they were worth including, and justify the presence of so many nifty performers--Judy Davis, Judith Ivey, Gwen Verdon, Robin Bartlett, Alec Baldwin, Holland Taylor, Cybill Shepherd, Blythe Danner, Julie Kavner, Caroline Aaron--who mostly wink in and out again as cameos. Nevertheless, almost all Woody's looking glasses are worth passing through at least once. --Richard T. Jameson