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One of those “domestics” even provides the clichéd “hmmmmmmm-HMMMMMMMM!” Black lady humming on the soundtrack. We usually don’t get to see this singer onscreen, but her purpose is always to underscore Black suffering. This time, she’s humming away as she sweeps the porch of the master’s house. The dead body of a man who attempted to escape is in the background, partially blurred so as to rob the image of any power. Paul Bennet (Jonny Lee Miller) commands that his cook, Alice (Keke Palmer) look at the deceased man. This is what happens when you’re not loyal, he warns. Bennet has taught Alice to read so she can read to him every Sunday before he rapes her. Mercifully, we’re spared having to sit through scenes of sexual assault.
We do, however, get to see Alice beaten, dragged, and hogtied to a pole before put in a hideous facial contraption. Just before releasing her days later, Bennet pisses in her face. We get to see that, too. However, Ver Linden’s camera gets shy when, in retribution, Alice shoves a broken piece of glass into her enslaver’s eye before escaping. It’s a premonition that the righteous Black revenge the trailer promised is going to be profoundly dissatisfying. “Alice” is not concerned with African-American viewers sick and tired of slavery scenes and downtrodden narratives. Instead, it’s unwilling to upset white viewers who consider themselves racial allies. A movie like this should unapologetically provoke their discomfort. It would have if it were made in the year it takes place.
If you’ve seen that trailer, you know that Alice’s escape culminates with her running right into a paved road. The movie is 40 minutes old before she is almost crushed by a truck driven by Frank (Common). This scene is so ineptly filmed that any shock of Alice suddenly discovering a highway during slavery times is lost. It’s revealed that we’re in 1973, the year of Tamara Dobson’s Cleopatra Jones and Pam Grier’s Coffy. Frank’s reaction to Alice defies belief. Here’s this bloodied woman, dressed like Kizzy from “Roots” and freaking out because she’s never been in a truck before. She doesn’t know what year it is and she pukes on his seats. Frank isn’t the least bit concerned. Perhaps she has amnesia, he assumes.
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