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WRITE WHAT YOU KNOW: ALICE, AVALON, METROPOLITAN

© Sean Gallagher

Anyone who's ever taken a writing class has heard the phrase "write what you know." That can be a way to get started, but the three movies under discussion here, ALICE, AVALON, and METROPOLITAN are all examples of writer-directors making a career out of taking that advice. Also, all three were nominated that year for Best Original Screenplay.

ALICE is from Woody Allen, who of course sets it in his usual milieu of the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Over the years, many have criticized Allen for too narrow a focus, and this movie probably won't win over any converts. But it's somewhat enjoyable. Alice, the title charcter played by Allen's then-girlfriend Mia Farrow, is an upper-class housewife and mother of two. Her husband Doug (William Hurt) has given her everything materially, but not in the way of affection. In addition to feeling lonely, she also has back problems, so she goes to Dr. Yang (Keye Luke) for treatment. He prescribes a series of herbs for her, in the belief it's her soul, rather than her back, that needs curing. Soon, all kinds of magical things start to happen: she's able to come on to a jazz saxophonist named Joe (Joe Mantegna), whose kids go to the same school hers do, she turns herself invisible, and she's even able to dance with Mickey (Alec Baldwin), the ghost of her dead former lover.

Allen has used magic in his films before (his segment in NEW YORK STORIES), but his approach is sort of scattershot here. This is also Farrow's weakest performance - I know she's supposed to play someone shallow who discovers more inside, but she isn't able to access those feelings enough. Still, there are more good parts than bad, and especially good is the scene with Farrow and Baldwin, as well as a funny scene when Joe turns invisible. And the rest of the cast, including Allen regular Judy Davis, is also good. Again, ALICE isn't a film Allen will be remembered by, but it's watchable.

While Barry Levinson has directed big films (RAIN MAN), he's also made a number of films set in his native Baltimore. AVALON is the third, following DINER and TIN MEN, and while not as good as those two, it's still pretty good. The story basically is about the Krichinsky clan - Sam (Armin Mueller-Stahl), the patriarch, and his wife Eva (Joan Plowright), their son Jules (Aidan Quinn) and his wife Ann (Elizabeth Perkins), and their son Michael (Elijah Wood, playing a character based on Levinson himself). Though there isn't a major story here, the movie does cover how Jules and his cousin Izzy (Kevin Pollak) try to move up in the world through selling appliances, young vs. old, and how television and suburbia helped break up the extended Krichinsky family.