Pairing permanently-loony Geraldine Page with feisty, spunky Ruth Gordon might've resulted in a darkly comic masterpiece of suspense--but "Alice" isn't it. Without giving too much away, I can only say that Gordon is given the shaft in such a way that I think the screenwriter was as crazy as Page. The film sets up a decent premise, but the tone seems off from the start: is this supposed to be a no-holds-barred thriller or is meant to be a little campy? I just found it ugly, and the desert locales aren't well captured (maybe it was the brackish color?). Page isn't really in character here (not that there's much of one), she's just relying on shtick. As for Gordon, she comes on loaded for bear, but the filmmakers have no idea what to do with her and the viewer's expectations are dashed. Any hopes of screen fireworks from these dueling divas fizzles out due to the weak, crude, basic writing. It's a star-pairing which proves to be a wasted affair. *1/2 from ****