In his debut as a director, Sujith Vaassudev narrates the bonding, or rather the lack of it, in the life of a married couple.
James( Prithviraj) is a talented painter turned ad filmmaker, living with his wife Alice( Vedhika), and their young daughter Pinky. Alice and James had got married against the wishes of her father, after the two fell in love some eight years back.James is too busy with his ad films and Alice works in a bank. And as they get too involved with their respective routines, they barely find enough time for each other. This creates a rift between them.
The entire first half is devoted to their relationship, the friction, the good times and the not so good times. You know that something is due to happen but the wait for it is rather tedious.
Though we are not spoiling the fun by revealing more about the storyline, in all fairness we have to admit that this one is not an easy story to narrate. To the credit of its director, the film has some really fine moments that could make you think.
The visuals by Sujith himself is good but the music is okay at best.
One of the highlights of the film is the performances. Prithviraj looks eminently handsome and comes up with a dedicated show. Vedhika is impressive especially when she has to emote during tense situations. But the chemistry that the two share during romantic scenes is not that great.
Sai Kumar, Vijayaraghavan, Kishore Satya, Manju Pillai, Parvathy Nair and Sudheer Karamana are also good.
At around two hours and forty-five minutes James & Alice is far too longer than what the story is worth. With a rather disappointing climax, this one gives the feeling that it could have been much better. It’s a fine one time watch at best.