Synopsis
Alice Tate, mother of two, with a marriage of 16 years, finds herself falling for the handsome sax player, Joe. Stricken with a backache, she consults herbalist Dr. Yang, who realizes that her problems are not related to her back, but in her mind and heart. Dr. Yang's magical herbs give Alice wondrous powers, taking her out of well-established rut.
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Cast
- Mia FarrowAlice Tate
- William HurtDoug Tate
- Joe MantegnaJoe
- Alec BaldwinEd
- Blythe DannerDorothy
- Judy DavisVicky
- Keye LukeDr. Yang
- Bernadette PetersMuse
- Cybill ShepherdNancy Brill
- Holland TaylorHelen
Recommendations
- 90
The New York Times
Woody Allen's marvelous new comedy, Alice, confirms Mr. Allen's safe arrival on a whole new plateau of film-making. - 75
Chicago Sun-Times
It's a strange, magical film, in which Allen uses the arts of the ancient Chinese healer as a shortcut to psychoanalysis; at the end of the film, which covers only a few days, Alice has learned truths about her husband, her parents, her marriage, her family and herself, and has undergone a profound conversion in values. Because this is a Woody Allen film, a lot of that metaphysical process is very funny. - 75
Rolling Stone
Alice may be a minor work in the Allen canon, but when its grace notes manage to be heard above the whimsy, they ring true. - 75
Entertainment Weekly
Watchable and sometimes funny, but ever so thin. - 75
Boston Globe
Alice isn't one of the best Allen films, but it's one of the better ones, generating more than enough whimsical fantasy to surmount its tacked-on moral. We're talking choice fluff here. [25 Jan 1991, p.29P] - 70
Los Angeles Times
Allen may consider Alice to be a minor jest before his next Big One, but there are pleasures in its small-time ambitions that sometime elude him on his more ambitious projects. - 70
Washington Post
Alice, which seems like child's play after last year's sober Crimes and Misdemeanors, finds Allen at his most optimistic and sentimental since Radio Days. His pen is not as sharp nor his wit as keen as it has been, but he has become accessible to a broader audience in this whimsical entertainment. - 60
Time Out
A scattering of fine one-liners , but one can't help wishing that Allen would investigate pastures new.
