Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974) ****1/2

In 1974 Martin Scorsese followed a road less traveled and made the drama Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, which is about a thritysomething housewife (Ellen Burstyn) who loses her husband in a traffic accident and decides to go back to singing in Monterey California taking her 11 year old son Tommy (Alfred Lutter) along. As they get into Tuscon she finds that singing engagements are hard to come by and starts working in Mel and Ruby's Diner as a waitress where she meets David (Kris Kristofferson) with whom a romance begins.

Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore opens with what could be called an odd homage to the Wizard of Oz. Instead of a tornado carrying the little girl from her home its a marriage to an indifferent man and parenthood. Ellen Burstyn, fresh off her Exorcist gig plays Alice as the local rube who doesn't know life outside the nuclear family. It's a jungle out there. The only real sensible relationship she has between leaving her home and Mel's Diner is the sage advice of a veteran waitress named Flo (Diane Ladd) who gives her homespun advice that actually makes sense especially in her relationship with David.

Alice as a whole is a depressing story about a woman whose life is turned upside down and as she tries to catch her dreams she keeps getting stomped on. Yet Scorsese throws humor in throughout the movie as a way to counteract the drabness that has been thrust upon them with most of the good lines going to Tommy. People who complain about Tommy being too annoying have obviously not been around any 11 year old boys lately.

This is one of those Scorsese curves that he throws at us from time to time. Alice was wedged between Mean Streets and Taxi Driver almost as a way to drive into the ditch and try something different.