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As I reiterated the highlights of Alice to my mother--how its dispirited homemaker heroine (Mia Farrow) achieves powers of invisibility and flight--her eyes lit up in an anticipative way, which leads me to believe that this is a woman's picture and thus fundamentally beyond my purview. Even so, I have issues with Woody Allen's mutation of Lewis Carroll's literary "Alice" adventures I hope aren't gender-specific, such as the hyphenate's passively racist treatment of Chinese characters, who when not curing white problems with mystical herbs apparently lounge around smoking opium. And don't get me started on the cynical positioning of Mother Teresa as a deus ex machina and plot strands that lead nowhere (neither Alice reuniting with her dead brother's ghost (Alec Baldwin) nor her enrolment in a writing course make much of a dent in the outcome, psychologically or narratively). Alice is all-too-reminiscent of Woody's formless, meandering jazz improvs. MGM's DVD keeps a tight rein on Farrow's bright red costumes, though the 1.85:1, 16x9-enhanced image is unnaturally soft at times. Audio is good, punchy 2.0 mono. Extras include a distorted-sounding trailer and a collectible booklet in which it's revealed that Allen reshot the ending to "[strengthen] the undercurrents of Alice's Catholicism..."-
© Film Freak Central; filmfreakcentral.net. This review may not be reprinted, in whole or in part, without the express consent of its author.
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DVD GRADES:
Image B
Sound B+ |
DVD VITALS:
Running Time
106 minutes
MPAA
PG
Aspect Ratio(s)
1.85:1 ONLY, 16x9-enhanced
Languages
English Mono,
French Mono,
Spanish Mono
CC
Yes
Subtitles
French, Spanish
DVD-5
Region One
MGM
Published: June, 2001
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