Hanging Up
Family ties: Eve, Dad and Maddy (Ryan, Matthau, Kudrow) catch the latest installment of Maddy's soap opera from Dad's hospital room.
dir Diane Keaton
scr Delia Ephron, Nora Ephron
with Meg Ryan, Lisa Kudrow, Diane Keaton, Walter Matthau,
Cloris Leachman, Adam Arkin, Jesse James, Duke Moosekian,
Ann Bortolotti, Celia Weston, Tracee Ellis Ross, Edie McClurg
Columbia 00/US
Review by Rich Cline
The Ephrons are back with yet another Meg Ryan comedy, this time about a trio of sisters coping with life and each other. The title refers to a very heavy phone metaphor running through the story, and Hanging Up is fairly watchable due to its stars and some nice comic moments in the first half. But the film lacks any clear sense of direction, so it's hardly surprising that it never goes anywhere.
Eve (Ryan) is the middle sister, married to a sensible man (Arkin), running a successful L.A. event-management business and raising a cheeky son (James, badly underused). Older sister Georgia (Keaton) is a frantic magazine publisher in New York, while the younger Maddy (Kudrow) is a spacey soap actress. Since Eve is the level-headed one, she's left to take care of their father (Matthau), who's seriously senile and failing fast. Eve basically spends the whole film on the phone juggling a major event, her father's illness and her preoccupied sisters ... until they finally get together in the end, of course.
There are several funny and astute moments early on, as family relationships are examined with a wry humour and underlying emotion. And there's a nice sense of past connection in the use of old photos and some nicely shot flashbacks featuring Matthau's son Charlie as a younger version of himself (eerie!). These actresses are always welcome on the big screen, but it's no surprise that Matthau steals all of his scenes with sheer cheek. The problem is that the film also has a plot that's contrived and manipulative as it stumbles to its happy-sad-goofy finale and tries to wrench every tear it can from your eyes. But watchability isn't enough--the ending shows up the film as just an empty exercise in girly nostalgia.
[15--themes, language] 17.Mar.00
US release 11.Feb.00; UK release 12.May.00
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READER REVIEWS
"Being one of three sisters, there were certainly enough tear-jerking moments. But, all in all, this movie was bad! The three gals are sisters who are dealing with a lifetime of relationship junk (including their abandonment by their mother 20 years earlier), along with their ailing father (Matthau) who is now being admitted to the hospital. All three of them are manic, and can't seem to put down the phone long enough to have a real moment. Eve (Ryan) is the middle sister and is the one who is trying the hardest to hold the family together, while she herself is falling apart. She bears the entire responsibility of handling what's going on with their father, while her sisters go about their business of being a self-absorbed magazine publisher (Keaton) or a whiny actress (Kudrow). Don't get me wrong, I like all of these actresses. I just got tired of the incessant kvetching. Other characters like Eve's husband and son are just barely there -- they really could have been developed more fully. Maybe this one is best left for a video rental. I don't know if my husband will forgive me for taking him to see it!" --Karen G, Los Angeles.
© 2000 by Rich Cline, Shadows
on the Wall
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