Hanging Up (2000)
| Hanging Up (2000) |
| Cast: | Meg Ryan | Eve |
| Diane Keaton | Georgia | |
| Lisa Kudrow | Maddy | |
| Walter Matthau | Lou | |
| Adam Arkin | Joe | |
| Duke Moosekian | Omar Kunundar | |
| Ann Bortolotti | Ogmed Kunundar | |
| Cloris Leachman | Pat | |
| Maree Cheatham | Angie | |
| Edie McClurg | Esther |
Review by Bret Walker
When faced with the advertisements for this film and all the publicity it got, I was genuinely looking forward to seeing it. Here, I thought, was a nice film about three sisters from different generations who had to come to terms with the illness and death of their father. However, as is true almost every time, the advertising showed me a story almost completely unlike that which is presented in Hanging Up. While that in itself is not unusual, in this case it was disappointing. The actual story within is thin and at times unbelieveable even by Hollywood standards.
It is a story only marginally about three sisters. More accurately, it's a story about Eve, and how she takes care of her father while her sisters are off gallavanting somewhere. Her older sister, Georgia, is preoccupied with running a magazine which bears her name; and her younger sister, Maddy, is preoccupied with the fact that, as a soap actress, she rarely gets any vacations and is thus taking advantage of the one she is on at present. In the meantime, Eve is taking on the burden of taking care of her dying father all by herself, and is thus preoccupied in this.
The sisters don't seem to bear any animosity toward each other, but they are distant and seem to have a lot of issues. These issues are clumsily and obviously explained in a few flashback sequences to times when they were closer. Issues with their mother leaving their father surface upon issues of denial that their father is truly sick. Each layer of personality is given its own flashback, leaving nothing to the imagination and giving the audience the impression that we're being led like children through the plot.
While Walter Mathau certainly gives his usual 110% to the role he plays as the girls' father, Lou, it's a shame that his effort had to be for a film whose story was so thin. He actually added color where there was only browns and greys. But while I would certainly recommend this film for at least one viewing by any fan of Mathau or Ryan or even Lisa Kudrow, fans of good film, storyline and plot should leave this one on the shelf.
Rating:
Trivia:
Diane Keaton has also had directing credits on two TV series: China Beach (1988) and Twin Peaks (1990).
This was Walter Mathau's final film before he died. It's not a bad film when you consider other notable actors and their final films:
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