Alice - Quick Movie Review

Critics Score - 7 of 10

General Audience Score - 8 of 10

Alice is a new film that is inspired by actual events and I promise you, you’ve never seen anything like this movie on a screen before. It’s crazy, harrowing, fantastic fun. The movie is a tight hour an a half run with one of the most unbelievable plot curve balls I’ve seen, probably in a couple years.

Alice begins with two slaves, Joseph and Alice (Keke Palmer), as they get married on a plantation in Georgia. Soon we get a glimpse of what life is like when the land owner, Paul, starts beating Joseph for catching a rabbit when he’s supposed to be cutting sugar cane. A bit later Joseph is told that he’ll be heading to another plantation to inseminate the other slave owner’s “domestics”, as the slaves are referred to. Meanwhile Alice cooks, feeds and cleans at Paul’s big colonial home and, let’s just say, she’s forced to take care of his sexual needs. Without getting into spoilers, the story takes some wild turns from there. 

With that kind of a start and premise, you’d expect a 12 Years A Slave type of film filled with human atrocities and tragedy as the final product. But the film actually shifts gears and becomes less traumatic, highly engaging and entertaining and by the finale turns into one hell of a wild ride. The acting is also solid, with the more serious first act working better than the ending, although Common does a decent job in his role assisting Palmer. So give Alice a chance, she’ll take you down the rabbit hole and show you things you’ve never seen before.