MovieChat Forums > Alice (1991) Discussion > Underrated Allen gem

Underrated Allen gem


Don't listen to the naysayers, 'Alice' is Allen's finest light-hearted
comedy. Combining elements of fantasy, romance, drama, and some of the
best one-liners ever ("Bottoms and no top, I coulda called it") 'Alice'
incorporates everything that makes Woody Allen films distinguishable
and seamlessly melds them together to make a totally engaging,
worthwhile film. Required Viewing in the Allen canon.

reply

i found it to be too fanciful, and less witty than any of his films. the characters are totally uninteresting, and i hated the way farrow played alice.

two thumbs down

(although i did laugh very hard @ bottoms and no top, i coulda called it)

reply

It's brilliant. All around brilliant. Not light-hearted at all. First saw it in my 20's. Just saw it again in my 30's. It's relevant. Brilliant. Fantastic on all levels.

reply

I just saw this film and thought it was terrific. Easily Mia Farrow's best comedic performance. Interesting to see Allen's neuroses and guilt played out by a Catholic woman rather than a Jewish man - it would be a real contest to see which group does guilt better! ;-)

I was wondering about that line "bottom and no top" - what's the significance of that? Why is it funny?


Repo Man is always intense!

reply

I think if it had been Woody in Alice's place and changed the roles around it would have been much funnier.

Last movie seen:- Alice

reply

Yeah, I appreciate Farrow and all, but I found her imitation of Woody a little annoying.

I think it's because Woody Allen imitations have become hack in my mind anyway, so seeing it at this point in my life feels like watching a bad comedian or Mad TV. I tried, but it's very difficult to get past that.

I'd have to agree that I'd prefer Woody as Woody.

Other than that, it's good =)

reply

For some reason, many of Woody's actors wind up acting like him. Jason Biggs, Will Ferrell and Kenneth Branagh notably so.

reply

Whimsical and just plain good!

Arthur (1981)
Susan: Arthur, take my hand.
Arthur: But that would only leave you with one!

reply

[deleted]

carthatic, profound experience...well said!

www.myspace.com/neveranaysayer
www.flickr.com/photos/neveranaysayer

reply

agreed. Wonderful film.

reply

Farrow is excellent, a superb performance!

reply

it's got a great cast, although davis, hurt, pretty much everyone is underused. it's funny, but slow. it's cute, but kind of precious. it's clever, but a little cloying. it's got the lamest music for an allen film - repetitive 'oriental' jazz tracks played over and over. and i think poor dr. yang is, unfortunately, though exotic, a somewhat offensive role... i mean, his english is good when allen needs a line in the script and bad when we are otherwise being treated to 'the foreign doctor'? please. for these reasons, it doesn't stand out as classic woody. on the other hand, it's watchable, and much better than a lot of the other crap out there... and the cinematography, as usual, is aesthetically pleasing. so it's still really good.

reply

I agree about the doctor. Clearly the actor is a fluent English speaker, but they make it sound like he hardly knows the language.

On the other hand, I loved the "Oriental" jazz score and pretty much everything else about this film. It doesn't quite have the cohesiveness of Woody's finest, but it's a nice little fable with a great cast.

reply

Yes it is one of the best Allen's films.

Mia Farrow reveals her talent as Alice.

The script is very clever with a lot of funny surprises - nominated for an oscar (1991).

It is extremely underrated!

reply

"...Allen's finest light-hearted comedy."

You must be looking for the 'Love & Death' message board; this is the board for 'Alice,' Woody's dullist light-comedy

reply

Broadway Danny Rose is superior to Alice, too.

reply

Yes, this is true. Especially the helium scene!

reply

[deleted]

Yes here too. Beautifull film. Love his super-realistoc folms like purple rose, zelig, alice, midnight in paris...great artist!

reply

Yes here too. Beautifull film. Love his super-realistoc folms like purple rose, zelig, alice, midnight in paris...great artist!

reply

I didn't care for this as much as say the utterly sublime 'The Purple Rose of Cairo' because the magical realism conceit was less focused. In 'Cairo' Allen took a brilliant but relatively basic concept ("What if a character was able to come out of a movie into the real world?") and ran with it creating a masterpiece. With 'Alice', Allen explored some interesting themes but the story wasn't so tightly-executed because there was no one brilliant conceit. Instead, Alice at various time is able to become invisible, communicate with dead people or have men fall in love with her.

reply

Watching this right after the tired, tedious and stilted Magic In Moonlight, I guess Alice deserves praise for being lively, eventful and fairly imaginative. However, it's also kind of unfocused and messy, as well as not nearly as funny as it strives to be. Also, the Manhattan millionaires' bitching about their lil problems & psychoanalyzing themselves gets really annoying and the babbling harpy Mia Farrow is typically insufferable. So, in all, it falls somewhere in the lower middle of Stiffy's filmography. It wasn't dull - but a "gem"? Let's not be ridiculous.



"facts are stupid things" - Ronald Reagan

reply