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| Ellen Burstyn |
After the death of her husband in an accident, Alice Hyatt (Ellen Burstyn of The Exorcist) packs up and drives off to a new life as a singer with her young son Tommy (Alfred Lutter). Trying to get a job as a singer -- although she's not very good -- she winds up as a waitress in a diner in Arizona and along the way gets involved with two very different men (Harvey Keitel and Kris Kristofferson). This once very popular movie hasn't worn well with time. Although Alice was hardly the first Hollywood movie to deal with a widow moving on and starting a new life for herself, stumbling all the while, it came out in a decade reappraising women's roles and therefore seemed more novel than it actually was. Burstyn is good, if a bit overwrought at times, and won the best actress Oscar for the role. Lutter as her son is terrific and the rest of the supporting cast, including a young Jodie Foster as a friend of Tommy's, is excellent. A product of its time if little else.
Verdict: Pleasant and well-acted. **1/2.
This is actually my favorite Scorsese film (and I love many) because it is the only one he made froma completely female point of view. Burstyn is funny, heartbreaking, strong--and I love the plaintiveness of her thin and breathy singing voice which makes us half-cringe but reveals her soul...(I need to write about this one, right??)
ReplyDeleteAlso love Jodie Foster in her first Scorsese role, a tough little (gender unspecific?) ruffian- and Alfred Lutter, though he never did anything else (was fired from the Alice TV series for some reason.) Oh, and Diane Ladd, Kris Kristofferson and Harvey Ketel to boot! What's not to love? LOL
-Chris
Funny, but with the exceptions of "Shutter Island," "The Last Waltz" and "Goodfellas" maybe "Raging Bull' (although I wouldn't call it a masterpiece) I've never been all that carried away with Scorsese's work. I did like "Alice" very much when it was first released, but now it just seems like a pleasant but almost forgettable comedy-drama; nothing special. I wish I loved it more than I did, but what can you do? Good performances, however, definitely!
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