Keke Palmer leads the cast of this involving, though flawed drama with a jaw-dropping twist that adds a new spin on the kind of story it is trying to tell. A revenge film that jumps genres part-way though that just about keeps the audience involved.
It’s difficult to review a film like Alice without giving away the twist/ plot device. The event comes in the first half of the film and most other reviews have spilled the beans, so I will do the same. Naturally, spoilers are ahead.
Alice opens Georgia, seemingly 1880’s America. Alice (Palmer) is property of nasty Mr. Paul (Jonny Lee MIller), who beats his enslaved on the plantation. Her family suffer; she suffers, on a daily basis – that is until breaking point when Alice manages to flee, dashing through the woods evading her persuers. The kick comes when the camera pushes back from Alice at an opening in trees, a tarmaced surface in front of her and cars speeding past in front of her. This isn’t the 19th century, but the outskirts of 1970s Atlanta, Alice curbside on a highway in danger of being killed not by plantation owners, but of high-speed motor vehicles, of which she has no idea as to what they are. A worried truck driver, Frank (Common) stops to aid the young women, still dressed in rags, and throughout the next ninety or so minutes, Alice’s story is told.
It’s a concept that will certainly attract audiences, and thus, worlwide distribution, no doubt at all. With echoes of last year’s delayed Antebellum, Alice is very different. Horrific it is, but in the horror genre this one doesn’t sit. More period drama with a blaxplotation subgenre feel, Alice is an absorbing watch, but post-reveal, the film has a plodding nature as Common’s Frank strives to unearth the reasonign behind Alice’s apparent amnesia. That reveal is about 40 minutes into the film as well, so the film does take its time in getting going. The device is the film’s selling point, and has been in all of the Sundance festival official blurb, so everyone knew all about it going it, but one can’t help but think should that reveal had been the big surprise going in.
It’s not a bad movie by any stretch, but it feels like one that has managed to have had a great idea that hasn’t been fully exploited. The performances are perhaps its big selling point, Palmer and Miller the clear stand-outs, but it sadly manages to miss the mark in terms of the pacing and a rather lackluster payoff.
Still, it’s not a film I walked away from feeling let down by. It has interesting ideas, a great soundtrack and a serious message at the heart of proceedings, too.
Alice
Summary
Some pacing issues and balacing of narrative aside, Alice is a largely engrossing watch with two excellent performances from both Keke Palmer and Jonny Lee Miller.
