
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, February 9, 1991                   TAG: 9102090403
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: E-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MIKE MAYO CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

`ALICE' IS NOT VINTAGE WOODY ALLEN, BUT IT HAS SOME FINE MOMENTS

"Alice" is a mid-level Woody Allen movie. It's not up to the standard of his best work - "Annie Hall," "Hannah and Her Sisters" - and it's not nearly as self-absorbed as his worst - "September," "Stardust Memories."

Rank it somewhere between "Radio Days" and "The Purple Rose of Cairo." This is a light story about magic with some fine moments of unexpected humor and a lame ending.

Alice (Mia Farrow) is a whiney, flighty Park Avenue rich lady. Her shallow life revolves around her dull husband (William Hurt), her daughters' private school, the decoration of the apartment, her trainer and assorted medical fads. A vague sense of unhappiness leads her to Dr. Yang (Keye Luke). He's an herbalist whose concoctions change Alice's life.

It really wouldn't be fair to reveal any of his strange potions, or their surprising effects. But it's not giving too much away to say Alice is led to contemplate an affair with a saxophonist (Joe Mantegna); she meets the ghost of her first love (Alec Baldwin); her own Muse (Bernadette Peters) pays her a visit; and before it's all over, dozens of men want to marry her.

For much of the film, writer/director Allen is at his most inventive. Some of the comedy is laugh-out-loud funny, and a couple of the fantasy sequences have a beautiful, effective dreamlike quality.

But those moments are separated by long, talky sections, and throughout Allen maintains a cool distance from the action. As is often the case in his films, the characters are not fully developed individuals. Instead, they're either pieces to be moved about a boardgame, or they appear briefly to criticize or to deliver wisdom.

And then there's the ending. It is, at best, weak. At worst, it's the kind of sanctimonious pretension that a younger Woody Allen, the director of "Bananas" or "Love and Death" or "Sleeper," would have mocked.

Still, it's not bad enough to ruin the film. The late Keye Luke's aggressive, grouchy performance is a delight, and even if this "Alice" doesn't spend all its time in Wonderland, the trip is worth the price of a ticket. `Alice': 1/2 An Orion release playing at the Salem Valley 8. Rated PG-13 for sexual subject matter, strong language. 106 min.

by CNB