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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 28, 1991)
Woody Allen as director, actor By Julia Spencer Writer-director Woody Allen’s lat est film, Alice, is a delightfully whim sical fantasy which makes some very real if not completely original points about relationships, values and mid-life crises. Alice (Mia Farrow) is a pampered and cosseted New York wife who spends her days shopping, gossip ing, going to the beauty parlor and planning dinner parties. Lately her back has been hurting, but none of her doctors, masseurs or exercise regimens can remedy the problem. Her friends, her housekeeper and even her usually inattentive husband (William Hurt), however, recommend a certain Dr. Yang, who hypnotizes the reluctant and skeptical Alice with a spinning spiral pattern mounted on a fan motor. Under hypnosis, she confesses her dissatisfaction with her 16-year marriage, expresses a desire to write and admits an attraction for Joe, a tenor sax player (Joe Man tegna) she has met while picking up her kids from school. Dr. Yang, an abrupt, if perceptive old man, ad ministers some herbs which give the usually timid Alice a new-found bold ness. Despite her overwhelming Catho lic guilt, she accosts Joe in a con spiratorial whisper, dazzling him with her suddenly acquired jazz ex- ertise, while a tango plays in the ackground. She even asks him to meet her by the penguin house at the zoo. Once the herbs wear off and the tango fades from the sound track, however, her painful shyness and guilt return, and she can't bring herself to keep the date. On a return visit to Dr. Yang she is given new herbs, which bring back the ghost of an old flame (Alec Bald win). Still others render her invisible, allowing her to spy on Joe, her friends and her husband. Lost in a spiral of accumulated guilt and inde cision, she vacillates between her in sensitive husband and Joe, and be tween the easy life and her desire to help others and lead her own, more fulfilling life. This indecision is wonderfully un derscored by the many images of spirals, by the way the camera pans back and forth between characters and by the music of the tango, which as a friend pointed out, is a dance in which the partners move back and forth. In spite of the simplicity of the mid-life crisis theme, the film itself is quite complex; its many motifs and striking images have much to offer the repeat viewer. Mia Farrow, in one of .her best roles here, is properly shy and wi shy-washy as Alice, and has expert support from Hurt, Mantegna, Bald win, Cybill Shepherd (as her suc cessful friend Nancy Brill) and Julie Kavner (in a bit part). Allen, who is strictly behind the camera here, manages some clever and well- aimed jabs at the "ladies who lunch” and at TV movies, and gently sati rizes the stereotypical Asian guru with Dr. Yang's matter-of-fact char acter. This movie will probably not last long here, so run and see it be fore it leaves. So what does Scenes From a Mall have in common with Alice other than Woody Allen, who stars in this "dramedy” along with Bette Midler? At first glance, one might say, "not much.” Scenes is set in a mall in LA., is more or less realistic, and has only two main characters. After seeing both of these movies this weekend, however, similarities be gan to pop up. Both of these films are about people who, after 16 years of marriage, are going through mid life crises, and are trying to reassess their relationships and their goals. Allen (sans black nerd glasses) and Midler, are Nick and Deborah, a wealthy professional couple (he’s a lawyer, she’s a psychologist), who are celebrating their 16th wedding anniversary. A trip to the mall to pick up some sushi for a dinner party sets the stage for their reminiscences and for the revelations which call into question the likelihood of further anniversaries. Nick, you see, picks this day to admit to his wife that he has had an affair — well, several affairs. He wants to be forgiven and is eager to start again with a clean slate. Debo rah, on the other hand, wants to call it quits, despite the fact that she has just written a book called “I Do, I Do, I Do; Recommitting Yourself to Mar riage in the Age of Divorce." After she hurls the sushi at him and stomps off, he attempts to appease her by offering to be her divorce law yer. Trying to divide up their prop erty over margaritas at a Mexican restaurant, the whole idea seems ri diculous, and a passionate interlude during a showing of “Salaam Bom bay” appears to have solved the problem. That is until Deborah has something to confess... Director Paul Mazursky (“Down and Out in Beverly Hills”) does a marvelous job of using the myriad public spaces of the mall as a back- drop for the couple’s quarreling and making up. A pesky mime (Bill Irwin of Broadway’s "Largely New York”) follows them around, symbolizing the couple’s failure to communicate and cashing in on their irritability. This couple's indecision, as they oscillate between renewing their commitment and giving up, is much like Alice’s, and the spiral mall park ing ramp mirrors the spiral stairs and hypnotic pattern Alice is caught in. Alice was the deeper, and I thought superior film; its consider able humor, while partly derived from fantastical situations, was based mostly on the natural comedy of human nature. Scenes, while hav ing its serious moments, is lighter and more farcical in nature, and uses more physical humor to get laughs. Both films say essentially that money can't buy you love and that all the money and possessions in the world won’t hold a relationship to gether. Not anything new, exactly, but perhaps these films are signal ing the end of the age of yuppie materialism. Film buffs will, of course, appre ciate Allen’s work in both of these films, but they are very much mains tream, and should appeal to any viewer. These aren’t Allen’s greatest works, but, like his best films, are perceptive, funny and human. Alice is showing at Post Oak 3; Scenes is showing at Shulman 6. page 10 February 28,1991 film r* 80&1T on the cover Christopher Smith, of Tomball, watches a battle between two combatants at a Society for Creative Anachronism event Saturday in Huntsville. Photo by Phelan M. Ebenhack LIFE # mijailne IllMfil) MIWM—iW • u ‘ k ~ ~ editor Kristin North associate editor Cindy McMillian art director Phelan M. Ebenhack feature writers Yvonne Saice Terri Welch reviewers John Mabry Rob Newberry Julia Spencer contributing writers Donna Banse Ellen Hobbs Pamela Lee Brian Paradis Kevin Robinson Lisa Young photographer Sdndra N. Robbins Life Style is a weekly publication of The Texas A&M Battalion. 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