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Movies / On DVD / Alice's House
Alice's House

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Alice's House (2007)

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Reviews Counted:30

Fresh:27

Rotten:3

Average Rating:6.8/10

Consensus: Chico Teixeira's steady hand and unblinking, sympathetic eye -- along with Carla Ribas' breathtaking performance -- make this portrait of working-class Brazilian life extraordinary.

Runtime: 1 hr 33 mins

Genre: Dramas

Synopsis: Brazilian documentary filmmaker Chico Teixeira brings a refreshingly natural touch to ALICE'S HOUSE, a working class drama about personal and family betrayal. Forty-ish manicurist Alice (Carla... Brazilian documentary filmmaker Chico Teixeira brings a refreshingly natural touch to ALICE'S HOUSE, a working class drama about personal and family betrayal. Forty-ish manicurist Alice (Carla Ribas) works long hours at the beauty parlor, only to return to a cramped Sao Paulo apartment she inhabits with her brutish husband Lindomar (Zecarlos Machado), three disrespectful sons, and her ailing mother. Struggling daily against such densely packed machismo, Alice is blind to the secrets simmering beneath her family's mundane existence. This includes her eldest son turning tricks with older men and her husband's affairs with teenage girls. Alice is soon drawn into her own web of infidelity by the reappearance of an old high school flame. As truths finally boil to the surface Alice must choose between a painful new reality and her desperate romantic hopes. Unlike the urban violence of recent Brazilian successes (CITY OF GOD, BUS 174), ALICE'S HOUSE is a quietly moving, warts-and-all observation of love, sex, and deception. Director Teixeira employs an intimate, true-to-life style that puts the film's focus squarely on the mercurial emotions and loyalties of its characters. Lauded throughout Latin America, ALICE'S HOUSE reveals how pride isolates a family from itself, and that only truth can lead you back on the road to healing. [More]

Starring: Carla Ribas, Vinicius Zinn, Ricardo Vilaça, Felipe Massuia

Starring: Carla Ribas, Vinicius Zinn, Ricardo Vilaça, Felipe Massuia, Berta Zemel, Zécarlos Machado, Luciano Quirino

Director: Chico Teixeira

Director: Chico Teixeira
Screenwriter: Chico Teixeira, Julio Pessoa, Sabina Anzuategui, Marcelo Gomes
Producer: Patrick Leblanc
Studio: Vitagraph Films

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Reviews for Alice's House

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1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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[Director Chico] Texeira's ordinary characters have a quiet genuineness and clarity that is rare anywhere in movies these days.

Full Review Source: Screen International | comment Comment
02/25/08
David D'Arcy
David D'Arcy
Screen International

Builds a quiet portrait of a family step-by-step imploding. Such a sympathetic depiction of working-class families are rarely seen on screen from any country.

Full Review Source: Film-Forward.com | comment Comment
12/23/08
Nora Lee Mandel
Nora Lee Mandel
Film-Forward.com

First-time director Chico Teixeira, an accomplished maker of documentaries in Brazil, brings a similar nonfiction feel to this melodramatic milieu, which is kick-started when Alice contemplates having an affair of her own with a former sweetheart.

Full Review Source: Miami Herald | comment Comment
07/18/08
Rene Rodriguez
Rene Rodriguez
Miami Herald

Nothing much happens in Alice's House, and a turning point in the plot is terribly contrived, but as sociology and maybe even a pilot for a soap serial, the movie is worth a look.

Full Review Source: Toronto Star | comment Comment
07/11/08
Susan Walker
Susan Walker
Toronto Star

Alice's House is character driven, and the performances are key.

Full Review Source: Jam! Movies | comment Comment
07/11/08
Liz Braun
Liz Braun
Jam! Movies

mia ap' aytes tis tainies poy den se noiazei an emfanistei enas pistolas apo to dipla gyrisma na toys gazosei oloys, arkei na teleiosei. Kai telika, kapos etsi ginetai.

Full Review Source: Movies for the Masses | comment Comment
05/06/08
Joseph Proimakis
Joseph Proimakis
Movies for the Masses

Even though it sounds awfully depressing, there's something moving about watching people go at their lives with everything they have -- or don't have.

Full Review Source: Washington Post | comment Comment
04/10/08
Desson Thomson
Desson Thomson
Washington Post

Very well-acted, especially by (Carla) Ribas, this is a tense drama of friendship, family and deceit that explores a wide spectrum of raw emotions.

Full Review Source: San Antonio Express-News | comment Comment
04/07/08
Larry Ratliff
Larry Ratliff
San Antonio Express-News

[The] restrained, elliptical style, focused on details rather than confrontations, and the nuanced performances make this house a home.

Full Review Source: Boston Phoenix | comment Comment
04/02/08
Peter Keough
Peter Keough
Boston Phoenix

Like a Brazilian telenovela unfolding in real time, the film fans its cards out slowly until we can see for ourselves the deck is stacked.

Full Review Source: Boston Globe | comment Comment
03/14/08
Ty Burr
Ty Burr
Boston Globe

Teixeira brings his camera into her home and quietly records the details of her daily life. The result is a carefully observed film about one woman's growing dissatisfaction.

Full Review Source: KPBS.org | comment Comment
03/05/08
Beth Accomando
Beth Accomando
KPBS.org

Although the characters are steeped in the culture of telenovelas and voodoo superstition, Alice's House is a subtly flavorful slice of life rather than a steamy potboiler.

Full Review Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch | comment Comment
02/25/08
Joe Williams
Joe Williams
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

The capable cast, director’s documentarian past and ambient soundtrack heighten the film’s real-life sensibility, perfectly capturing the working-class life of a São Paulo family.

Full Review Source: Time Out New York | comment Comment
02/25/08
Monika Fabian
Monika Fabian
Time Out New York

In her first leading role, Carla Ribas joins the fast-growing ranks of middle-aged Latina actresses whose performances resonate with a beguiling mixture of emotional complexity and sexual maturity.

Full Review Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer | comment Comment
02/22/08
Bill White
Bill White
Seattle Post-Intelligencer

In a remarkably assured, no-frills feature debut, Brazilian documentarian Chico Teixeira draws a vivid portrait of marital and familial dysfunction.

Full Review Source: Seattle Times | comment Comment
02/22/08
Jeff Shannon
Jeff Shannon
Seattle Times

Ribas has justifiably won a shelf of awards for her portrayal.

Full Review Source: Los Angeles CityBeat | comment Comment
02/07/08
Andy Klein
Andy Klein
Los Angeles CityBeat

The juiciest bits happen off camera, yet their consequences are riveting, thanks in no small measure to sympathetic performances by Carla Ribas and Berta Zemel.

Full Review Source: Boxoffice Magazine | comment Comment
02/06/08
John P. McCarthy
John P. McCarthy
Boxoffice Magazine

The gritty location shooting, the absence of a soundtrack and the casting of non-professionals in key roles help capture an all-important sense of place with almost documentary precision.

Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | comment Comment
01/25/08
Ken Fox
Ken Fox
TV Guide's Movie Guide

Teixeira elicits extraordinary performances from his entire cast.

Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle | comment Comment
01/25/08
David Wiegand
David Wiegand
San Francisco Chronicle

Writer-director Chico Teixeira, who started out making documentaries, watches from afar as his middle-class characters go about their day-in, day-out activities, most of which revolve around sex.

Full Review Source: New York Post | comment Comment
01/25/08
V.A. Musetto
V.A. Musetto
New York Post
 
 
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