“ALICE”— The Need for Love

Amos ♦ August 19, 2012 ♦ Leave Your Comment

“Alice”

The Need for Love

Amos Lassen

Israel brings us another fine film with “Alice”, the story of the need for love and the inability to receive it when it is available. Alice (Ilanit Ben Yaacov) is 38 years old and a woman who sleeps during the day because she works at night. Alice works at a rehabilitation center and this is the perfect excuse for her fatigue and emotional apathy. Her husband, Yigal, feels lonely and her cold attitude bothers him greatly and he is filled with built up anger. Her son, nine year old Eli needs and wants her love.

There are some thirty women at the rehabilitation center where she works and they have all suffered some kind of emotional crisis. Alice is basically non-communicative with the women and only performs the most basic of duties. She hands out medication, supervises meals and showers but after lights out, she meets her lover Yael in her small office/room there. She shares her small bed and Alice is filled with passion for a life that might have been but instead is a secret.

Seeing the other women makes us realize just how lonely Alice really is. However, things change when a dominant young woman and the demands of Yael push her into a confrontation with devastating consequences. Ben Yaacov is brilliant as Alice and this film will stay with you for a long, long time.