Twilight Time offers another Woody Allen film for fans to
enjoy or non-fans to disregard. Once more he teams of with life partner (at the
time) Mia Farrow to present a tale that takes place in his familiar New York
City. This time he takes the neurosis found in most of his films and gives them
nods to both the Lewis Carroll classic ALICE IN WONDERLAND and Federico
Fellini’s JULIET OF THE SPIRITS.
Alice (Farrow) is a well to do married woman who still feel
empty inside. Her days are spent with the children being looked over by their
nanny, shopping at the most expensive stores and with nothing more than small
talk with her wealthy husband Doug (William Hurt). Picking up the kids one day
she sees another parent there named Joe (Joe Mantegna) that she’s attracted to.
Her guilt over this attraction causes her to have back
pains. Complaining of the backache to her friends while shopping one suggest
that she try an acupuncturist and herbalist she know called Dr. Yang (Keye Luke
in his final film performance). With nothing to lose Alice visits Yang who
tells her the problem is not in her back but in her head and her heart. He
provides her with some herbs to take at a precise time.
The next day she picks up the kids after taking the herbs
and meets Joe again while waiting. The herbs have left her uninhibited and she
flirts mercilessly with Joe, making a date to meet the following day. She
doesn’t follow through with the date but returns to Dr. Yang who gives her new
herbs to use, this time making her invisible.
While invisible she watches Joe as he meets up with his
ex-wife (Judy Davis) in her office and the two have a quickie there for old
time’s sake. This makes her glad she didn’t go through with her meeting. It
also sends her back to Dr. Yang who gives her different herbs, this time giving
her the ability to see her old beau, Ed (Alec Baldwin), who died before they
could marry. Ed suggest that she give Joe a chance and learn more about him.
Each suggestion that Alice follows opens up new doors to
what’s really going on inside of her, her true emotions and feelings, rather
than the superficial life she’s been leaving. And each time she learns
something new she returns to Dr. Yang who gives her more herbs that lead her in
more directions with more people. Whether or not she will learn from her
experiences and find happiness is what rounds out the film by the end credits.
The story is interesting and inventive in its mix of
mysticism, romance and light comedy. Each new herb yields yet another small
story within the context of the larger whole, revealing as much about Alice to
us as she learns about herself. The writing is some of the better that Allen
has done from the films of his I’ve seen and it works well within the confines of
the NYC world of the elite.
The cinematography here is amazing. Where some movies do
well either with interiors or exteriors but not always both, cinematographer
Carlo di Palma (famous for shooting BLOW UP as well as many of Allen’s later
films) shows an expertise to be envied. His use of lighting and camera angles
works in every shot.
Perhaps the weakest element the film has is its lead
actress, Farrow. I’ll admit that my exposure to her performances is pretty
limited to her appearances in other Allen films and ROSEMARY’S BABY. I’ve never
found her to be a dynamic actress whose work I would want to seek out. But her
performances in the films shot in NYC for Allen always feel the same to me. She
always seems as if she’s a weak willed woman with a constantly whining voice,
always unsure of herself and more inclined to wallow in self-pity than anything
else. Having recently watch Allen’s MANHATTAN MURDER MYSTERY and learning that
she had been intended to play the role Diane Keaton did I kept thinking that that
movie would have felt completely different if that had happened. And not for
the better. It doesn’t matter if Alice finds herself here or not, the majority
of the film has her so self-deprecating that it made it hard for me to feel for
her.
While critically acclaimed and nominated for various
screenplay awards the movie was a box office flop. It should have done better
because for the minor flaws in the film it was entertaining and a good
representation of Allen’s films. Perhaps it will find an audience on discs that
will make up for that box office loss.
Twilight Time is offering the film in a beautiful blu-ray
presentation here in 1080p. Extras are slim to non-existent with just an
isolated music & effects track and the original theatrical trailer. But
fans of Allen will want to grab this up since like other Twilight Time releases
it is limited to just 3,000 copies.
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