I don't always find Woody Allen funny or stimulating, but I do think he's very smooth and efficient as a filmmaker, and that's why the stumbling "Alice" surprised me. It has bits and pieces of clever comedy and fantasy, but it's saddled with a script that seems made up of parts from different movies. Mia Farrow is charming (as usual) playing a New York City wife and mother whose visit to a Chinese herb doctor sets her on a journey of self-discovery. So far, so good. But I found nothing of interest in her sour marriage to William Hurt (their scenes are poor from all standpoints) and nothing good can be said for Alec Baldwin as a ghost. Keye Luke is perfectly cast as the unconventional medico who helps Alice change her outlook on life, and the film picks up a bit at the 60 minute mark with other nice turns by Bernadette Peters and Blythe Danner. But when Woody Allen veers back to the marriage stuff, his narrative becomes unhappily inconclusive. "Alice" plays very flat on television; perhaps in the theater--with an appreciative audience--it was somewhat more bearable. ** from ****
Review of Alice
