Review: Alice

Mia Farrow stars as Alice, an upper class housewife and wannabe writer, who has a sore back and a lack of fulfilment in her marriage to dullard workaholic William Hurt. For the former she goes to see herbalist Dr. Yang (Keye Luke), who believes Alice’s back problems are somehow directly caused by her general unhappiness. He gives her an herbal tea concoction, and all of a sudden Alice feels liberated…and flirty. She contemplates having an affair with sax player Joe Mantegna whose kid goes to the same school as Alice’s, she also gets visited by the ghost of her dead ex-boyfriend (Alec Baldwin), and gets hit on by every lonely geek at a party. It appears that Dr. Yang has given Alice the power to make men fall in love with her, but will she choose to reignite the flame with her husband, or dive into an affair with the sax player? Blythe Danner plays Alice’s sister, Cybill Shepherd plays a friend and book publisher, and Gwen Verdon is Alice’s mother. A slew of familiar faces and names appear in small parts (Judy Davis, June Squibb, Bob Balaban, James Toback, Patrick O’Neal, Julie Kavner, Bernadette Peters, and Elle MacPherson among them).

 

The occasional flights of fancy from Woody Allen aren’t always to my liking (I loathed the pretentious “Midnight in Paris”), but I have to say that this 1990 comedic fantasy is seriously underrated. Only Woody Allen could make a likeable, whimsical romantic comedy about a woman trying her damndest to have an affair…and Woody pulls it off. Yes, it’s perhaps a smidge too odd at times, but for the most part I went along with this one. It’s easily one of Woody’s best-looking films, it’s gorgeous, boldly coloured stuff.

 

Although not my favourite actress, Mia Farrow is very easy to take to in this one, whilst glum William Hurt and charismatic Joe Mantegna are well-chosen to play her boring husband and handsome would-be suitor. I mean, once you see that her husband is played by the often smug and dull Hurt (and here, those qualities are finally an asset), you can see why Alice’s attention is easily turned to Joe Mantegna. Meanwhile, every scene with the late Keye Luke (one of his last films) is wackier and funnier than the preceding one. He steals the show, though Alec Baldwin makes a memorable appearance too (The second time he had played a ghost in two years, after “Beetlejuice”). Blythe Danner is good too, as Alice’s more pragmatic, not terribly warm-hearted sister. Bob Balaban is perfect casting in a very brief turn as a smitten, nerdy party guest.

 

There’s some funny stuff throughout, like Farrow getting seriously flirty with Mantegna after having some of Luke’s unorthodox treatments. That was hilarious. It’s a shame about the music, which is thoroughly obnoxious throughout. It’s a fairly minor issue, but it’s the one flaw in the film for me. It annoyed me constantly with its intrusiveness.

 

A nice, sweet, quirky film about adultery, with a sympathetic turn by Mia Farrow and well-cast William Hurt and Joe Mantegna backing her up. Thematically a little similar to “The Purple Rose of Cairo” at times, I liked this one even more.

 

Rating: B-