Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore
Directed by Martin Scorsese
Written by Robert Getchell
1974/US
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime
Flo: What is it you want?
Alice: If I knew that, I wouldn’t be out here crying in the toilet, would I?
Martin Scorsese goes outside his comfort zone to give us a story about a woman looking for second chances.
From a small girl, Alice (Ellen Burstyn) dreamed of being a singer. As we flash forward 27 years, we find her acting as a housewife for her cold, verbally abusive husband and her smart-aleck 11-year-old Tommy (Alfred Lutter III). When her husband suddenly dies, Alice and Tommy set off on a road trip to Monterey where Alice had some success singing at a hotel bar before her marriage. They don’t have the money to finance the entire trip so they stop in Phoenix where Alice does find work as a singer for awhile. Truth be told she is not an excellent singer.
Unfortunately, she also starts up a relationship with Ben (Harvey Keitel) who picks her up at the bar where she works. On one fateful day, Ben’s wife shows up at Alice’s place and Ben goes utterly psycho, destroying the motel room and chasing his wife with a knife. Alice and Tommy take off in the middle of the night. Next stop Tuscon.
Alice is unable to find singing work and settles for work as a waitress in Mel and Ruby’s Diner. She is still determined to get Tommy to Monterey by his twelfth birthday. After a rocky start she forms a close relationship with sassy fellow waitress Flo (Diane Ladd). Soon hunky rancher divorcee David (Kris Kristofferson) attempts to woo her. She is reluctant, so he starts to work on the son to get to her. Will Alice’s dreams come true? With Jodie Foster as Tommy’s street-smart friend.
This is not a flashy picture but it is full of heart and Burstyn’s performance was truly Oscar-worthy. It was made at that strange juncture where women’s liberation was the thing but true romance still held sway in the movies. Not a must-see but I enjoyed it a lot.
This has very little to do with the hit TV sit-com “Alice” other than the diner and the characters of the waitresses.
Ellen Burstyn won the Academy Award for Best Actress. Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore was nominated in the categories of Best Supporting Actress (Ladd) and Best Writing, Original Screenplay.
