I don't know if this would have been a better ending - but I kept hoping that she would drink the "love herb" herself at the end. It seemed that what she needed was not for someone to love her, but for Alice to like herself a little bit more. Then she would have had the self confidence for the movie to end the way it did. Just a thought.
shareI like your idea but I think it's better that she did it without hocus pocus.
Demelza -Cornish or a Poldark fan?
Hm. It's maybe odd to consider if the cook didn't accidentally put the love potion into the food, who would she have picked? I mean, both men were pretty vile, but I would have picked Doug, because he was better-looking and rich (hey, I'm superficial).
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The cook didn't put all of it in the egg nog. Alice dumps the rest out while arguing with Doug about going to Calcutta.
shareWhat was vile about Joe? I know we're supposed to see him this way, but I guess I missed it.
shareJoe seemed likeable in terms of personality but he was still sleeping with his ex-wife so he was every bit as duplicitous as the staid and bland Doug.
I do rather like the OP's idea. It has a certain brilliance about it. But like the subsequent posters said, it's arguably better that Alice began to like/love herself for her deeds, without resorting to magic.
I also hoped she would take the herb herself.
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SPOILERS BELOW
For a minute, I thought she was going to. I thought there was something in that packet while she was making tea and arguing with her husband - maybe a little left-over that didn't make it into the holiday nog. It's possible that there was a bit of residue left. Then again, maybe she learned to do it without the herb. I think she did learn to love herself more by the end, anyway, or at least to find the real version of herself that she could love.
When she was given the love potion, I thought that was a brilliant move: pick a guy, choose a life. It's such a tough decision to make, and neither would have been satisfying to me. The musician was falling back in love with his ex, if Alice took that away from him it would be unconscionable. Of course, if she doped her husband, eventually they'd just wind up where they were at the beginning.
Then the egg nog gag was the perfect anticlimactic punchline that lead to the perfect ending: of course what she needs is self-discovery, which is of course what Dr. Yang was telling her while handing her the packet in the first place. Dr. Yang knew his stuff...