Imagine if someone tossed the films The Village and Antebellum into a blender with a dose of Blaxploitation. The result would be Krystin Ver Linden’s directorial debut, Alice. Whether this cinema blend is good enough for you depends on your ability to just go with its premise.
Keke Palmer stars as the titular heroine who finds herself jarringly thrown into the 1970s after spending her life enslaved on a 19th-century plantation. The earth-shattering revelation that she has been free for a long time comes after the murder of her husband (Gaius Charles) during a failed escape. Alice decides to make her own bid for freedom instead of remaining bound to her cruel master, Paul Bennet (Jonny Lee Miller). Soon after her harrowing escape, she stumbles onto a freeway where she meets the confused, but helpful truck driver, Frank (Common).
Frank serves as Alice’s guide into the world of the 1973 and helps open her eyes to how different the world really is. When the truth settles in, Alice’s shock and grief turn into justifiable rage as she becomes determined to return to the plantation and free the rest of her enslaved people.
While the film is watchable, one can’t help but feel like it doesn’t quite live up to its full potential. While I commend Linden for not letting the movie drag on unnecessarily, I feel that the movie would have benefited from showing more of Alice adjusting to life in 1973. Perhaps even showing her getting a job and attempting to fully integrate herself into modern society before realizing that she must go back to free the people that remain enslaved.
This also leads to another problem I have with the film. There’s no clear sense of how much time has passed between when Alice escapes the plantation and when she returns to seek revenge on her former captors. We see her learning to navigate the real world, but it isn’t clear how long it has taken. One would suspect that she’d need at least a year or more to adjust to the contemporary world, yet in still, we get no indication if it has taken that long or not.
Keke Palmer gives a strong performance here and is a compelling lead. She goes from soft-spoken and meek Alice to a strong, and unstoppable woman determined to see justice served. Common gives a great performance as well. His character, Frank, is figuratively enslaved by the influence and power of his older brother. The arrival of the newly emancipated Alice allows him to emancipate himself from his familial shackles.
Although Alice has its flaws, and a great premise that doesn’t live up to its full potential, it’s worth watching.
Alice will debut in select theaters on March 18, 2022.
Director: Krystin Ver Linden
Writer: Krystin Ver Linden
Runtime: 100m
Starring: KeKe Palmer, Common, Jonny Lee Miller, Gaius Charles, Alicia Witt, NaTasha Yvette Williams
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Writer. Video Essayist. Film/TV Critic. Pop Culture Enthusiast.
When he isn’t writing for Geek Vibes Nation or The Cinema Spot, Tristian can be found typing away at one of the novels or screenplays he’s been working on forever.
