Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974)
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Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore Movie Review
Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore is a 1974 drama film directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Ellen Burstyn. It’s one of the director’s best and most underrated efforts.
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“So long, suckers!“
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A recently widowed woman is on the road with her precocious young son, determined to make a new life for herself as a singer. How many times have we seen Scorsese do a drama about women and the lives they lead? Not that often of course, which is why this particular picture deserves more attention as his most atypical movie where he showed a lot of restraint and maturity as a storyteller.
This drama is all about the hard lives that single mothers lead. Although feminists today may not find this female portrayal admirable, this is in reality one of the best and most honest depictions of women and what they go through, or more specifically what they went through back then. Alice Hyatt is a classic female protagonist, one of the best in movie history because she is thoroughly believable, superbly developed and complex.
There are many women not like this, especially not today, but before there were many quite like Alice, meaning that they struggled to survive without a man in their lives. This movie still ended up uplifting her character and making her stand on her own feet, which was actually quite powerful for the time. But that duality in her character of wanting to be protected by a man but also wanting to survive on her own made her a deeply complicated, fascinating character.
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Alice of course would not work without Ellen Burstyn herself, who here delivered one of the best performances of the decade. She was rightfully honored with an Academy Award and is in my opinion one of the best winners in the history of that category. Not only did she sell her character’s emotional plight, but she was so thoroughly believable and layered in her acting work here that it’s difficult to imagine anybody else in this role.
She is also well complimented by a fantastic cast of supporting actors and actresses. Diane Ladd is so wonderful as the waitress friend and stealing the show every time that she is on screen that her losing an Oscar to Ingrid Bergman for her much lesser work in ‘Murder on the Orient Express’ is an absolute travesty. Valerie Curtin is also wonderful in a minor role as another waitress. How these women braved through their job obstacles was deeply inspiring.
As for the men in the picture, Harvey Keitel played the most atrocious man possible, an initially pleasant man that eventually proves to be a beating and cheating husband. He was very well cast and very good here. Kris Kristofferson is also strong as her love interest in the second half. The two shared a very well developed, charming and grounded romance.
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Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore is one of those on the road movies that are an utter delight to watch. At times the movie even exhibited wonderful slice-of-life elements while continuously benefitting from very realistic dialogue. The son is so well played by Alfred Lutter and the movie depicted just how problematic and difficult it must be raising this type of brat child. The cinematography, editing and directing are all stellar. Some parts are less interesting here than others as the first half is significantly less engaging, but the second half delivered emotions and drama in spades.
How many times has Marin Scorsese made a drama about women? Not that often, which is why Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore was a breath of fresh air for the director and it still remains one of his best and most underrated works. This picture not only depicts a complex, believable and superbly developed female protagonist, but Ellen Burstyn elevated her even more with one of the best performances to ever win the Best Actress Oscar. She was well complimented by a talented cast of supporting actors with Diane Ladd being the most memorable of the bunch. This is such a well written, moving and very well made movie about single mothers and what they go through that also features a powerful, uplifting ending.
My Rating – 4.5
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