Alice (Woody Allen) - 1990

Woody's Alice lives in a wonderland of wealth and privilege but she wants more - a lover and a career.  She gets her drugs (herbs) from Dr. Yang (Keye Luke 1904-1991).  The herbs take her down the rabbit hole where she loses her red hat and meets Alec Baldwin (Cheshire Cat?), Bernadette Peters (Muse) and her late parents played by Gwen Verdon (1925-2000) and Patrick O'Neal (1927-1994).  This was the tenth of twelve roles that Woody wrote for Mia Farrow and he seemed to be stretching to find a different persona for her.  Having watched these movies in order, I grew quite tired of Mia.  The scenes and cinematography are wonderful with an all-star cast that includes Blythe Danner, William Hurt, Joe Mantegna, Cybill Shepherd, Julie Kavner and Elle Macpherson but the ending really comes out of left field.  [JAM 6/27/2011]

["I wanted to do something about a rich Upper East Side lady -- because I always like to write about rich Upper East Side people -- a rich Upper East Side lady like the kind I used to see when I took Dylan to school.  I would see these mothers in sneakers and running suits with a Blackglama sable or mink coat over it an I always got a kick out of that.  Now, there are people that resent that kind of thing.  I'm not one of them.  I am amused by it, affectionately.  There is a line in Alice that I don't exactly remember but it is about if the kid doesn't get into the right preschool he won't get into the right college.  That whole world interested me." Conversations with Woody Allen]