Shortly after she and her son hurriedly move to Tuscon without looking back, Alice decides to put aside her aspiration for a while due to their current poor financial status and begins to work as a local diner waitress. Although she struggles a lot on her first day at the diner, she gradually gets accustomed to her new job, mainly thanks to Florence (Diane Ladd), one of the two other waitresses.
Around that point, the screenplay by Robert Getchell slowly settles with its heroine while further fleshing out several different characters around her. As the usual customers of the diner come and go during its opening hour, the diner frequently brims with vivid and realistic sense of life. We also get to observe more of the colorful personalities of Alice’s colleagues. My favorite moment involves Vera (Valerie Curtin), a shy and neurotic waitress who, to our little amusement, turns out to be more spirited than she seems on the surface.
When David (Kris Kristofferson), one of those usual customers, tries to court Alice, she understandably hesitates. But she soon finds herself attracted to him as getting to know him more. After spending more time with him, she considers living with him because he seems to be much better than her husband or that horrid guy. However, she still wants to pursue her dream as before, and she keeps hesitating between her aspiration and the possible new love in her life.
Getchell’s screenplay then glides to an unexpectedly funny and touching scene between Alice and Florence. As a brash but no-nonsense woman, Florence gives honest advice to Alice, and Alice indeed follows Florence’s sensible words when she has to make an important choice for her life. Her eventual choice can be regarded as a compromise, but she makes that choice on her terms. The last shot of the film slyly implies to us that, regardless of whatever happens next, there are still a lot of possibilities in front of her.
Scorsese was technically a hired hand in the case of “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore,” but he was willing to demonstrate that he could be a fairly good mainstream filmmaker, and he turned out to be the right director for the movie as Burstyn felt after seeing “Mean Streets.” To subtly convey Alice’s unsettled status, he and his cinematographer Kent L. Wakeford seldom let the camera become static throughout the film, and that also brings considerable verisimilitude to the screen. In addition, Scorsese often encouraged improvisation among his cast members, and they accordingly look natural and spontaneous in their interactions on the screen.