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Alice

posted by Landon Cassman at 12:58 am.

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Tonight I watched a movie that I would have regretted never seeing in my life. On nights where I just feel like doing absolutely nothing, I depend on my number one companion: my Comcast ondemand menu. It’s like having a video store in your own home! So, with stuff gloomy weather going on outside, I decided tonight was one of those nights to just relax and watch a movie I’d never seen. It’s hard to pick one when there’s so many choices, many of them being worthless titles I’ve never heard of, but thankfully I landed on the one I was meant to watch: Woody Allen’s Alice.

Woody Allen is notorious for his nerdy looks and his brilliant comedic writing. His films are always expected to be smart and extremely witty. I’d only seen several of his films, but nothing stood out to me as much as his Oscar winning film Annie Hall. I thought it was one of the funniest movies I’d ever seen and I knew, at the young age I watched it, that the material was very was portrayed. I expected nothing less from the film Alice. This film, starring Woody Allen’s ex-wife Mia Farrow, follows Alice Tate, a shy woman married to a wealthy man with two young children. Alice one day begins to start imagining herself with another man that she had seen at her childrens’ daycare. Her impulsions lead her to a Chinese doctor who uses special herbs that have magical effects.

What’s great about this film is the fact that it takes the cliched story of a woman who falls for a guy other than her husband, and instead adds a fantasy element in order to make it more interesting. And it succeeds. With the Chinese doctors herbal medicines, Alice experiences a total personality change, the ability to be invisible, and even the sixth sense in order to see her ol’ dead boyfriend played by Bill Pulman. The material is both hysterical and endearing. We really have to like and empathize for the neglected housewife, and root for her in getting anything she wants, with or without the magic.

Landon Cassman: Through boredom and pure enjoyment I find myself always involved in either film or music related endeavors. This is one of them.