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Alice
Woody Allen capped his string of intriguing dramas in the late 1980s with this slight, mostly serious fantasy inspired by Alice in Wonderland and Allen's own lifelong preoccupation with magic. Mia Farrow stars as Alice, an Upper West Side socialite whose days are spent shopping and having pedicures on the dime of her cold, successful husband (William Hurt). Beset by back problems, Alice is referred to an exotic acupuncturist (Keye Luke) who proscribes a series of magical herbs aimed at curing instead the ailments in Alice's heart and soul. While there is some good humor in Alice, it is spare and incidental, and even though Allen's point is obvious (that material wealth and arrangements of comfort are spiritual dead-ends), it's never labored, and he handles the moments of fantasy and memory with a soft touch. Farrow gives Alice an appealing innocence, even as she contemplates adultery. Also with Joe Mantegna, Judy Davis, and Alec Baldwin. Presented in anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1) with audio in Dolby 2.0 mono. Trailer, keep-case.
—Gregory P. Dorr
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