Young widow Alice (Burstyn) is left to make a new life for herself and her young son, with no prospects and precious little money. With Alice harboring vague hopes of becoming a singer, she and her boy take an eventful road-trip west. Watching their challenging but colorful journey unfold is as satisfying as the hopeful outcome they ultimately achieve.

Here Martin Scorsese branches out into fresh cinematic territory, a world away from the gritty, urban, ethnic male preserves of "Mean Streets”." The personal, heartfelt quality of Alice” helps the director score a bull's-eye. The gifted Burstyn, noble yet far from glamorous, seems to personify every average woman forced to face a new life chapter on her own, while singer/actor Kristofferson helps spark some divine chemistry as Alice's new, no-nonsense boyfriend. But Diane Ladd (Laura Dern's real-life Ma) nearly steals the picture playing Alice's hard-edged waitress colleague, Flo. Also look for a young, predictably precocious Jodie Foster in a small role.