Alice Review: Keke Palmer Is Excellent In Messy, Underdeveloped Drama [Sundance]
In Krystin Ver Linden’s feature film debut, the writer-director brings a story that's trying to do way too much with limited time. Alice, about an enslaved woman who discovers there’s an entirely different world beyond the plantation’s borders, offers a solid central performance by Keke Palmer and not much else. The film has too much going on and much of it doesn’t blend well together, with Alice not getting enough time to develop before the film’s big ending.
Alice (Palmer) is a slave in antebellum Georgia, the preferred “domestic” of the cruel plantation owner Paul Bennett (Jonny Lee Miller), who only taught Alice to read so that she could read to him. Alice is married to Joseph (Gaius Charles) and they both dream of running away together. While this idea seems hopeless to their friends and family, Alice feels there is something bigger out there waiting for her. They lean further into their plans after learning Joseph’s grandfather saw a man drop from the sky wearing unusual clothes. When things go awry and Joseph is caught, Alice flees on her own, running through the woods until she reaches a highway in 1973 and is nearly run over by Frank (Common), a truck driver who takes her back to his home in a bid to help. Alice must adjust to being in the 1970s and plots her revenge against Paul.
Related: Nanny Review: Anna Diop Shines In Nikyatu Jusu's Haunting Feature Debut [Sundance]
Alice so often feels misleading and empty, spinning wildly from one established tone to a wholly different one after the titular character bursts through to 1973. The timeline twist isn’t enough to keep the film afloat, especially as the first half hour has a much steadier direction and does well to lay the groundwork of what’s to come. But
Read more on screenrant.com
