Review of Hanging Up (2000) by Shawne ~ — 01 May 2004

Don't be fooled by the perky poster of Diane Keaton, Meg Ryan and Lisa Kudrow all tangled-up in a bunch of red telephone cords into thinking that this is going to be something of a comedy. Far from it. [b]Hanging Up[/b] is actually a domestic drama, chronicling the anguish of one of the Mozell sisters in particular, Eve (Ryan). As the girls' father Lou (a withered but still effective Walter Matthau) slowly loses his battle with raging alcoholism and insanity, Eve finds herself left with the upkeep--she's taking care of him, and visiting him everyday, and enduring his abuses (including when he forgets who she is and tries to pick her up), even as her sisters Georgia (Keaton) and Maddy (Kudrow) get on with their own lives. Georgia is the archetypal cold, hard businesswoman, and quite simply she is the star of her own world and doesn't give a shit about her dad or her sisters. (At one point, Eve screams at Georgia that she's "bored witless" when everything isn't about her. Georgia, momentarily flummoxed, admits that yes, that's true.) Maddy is the baby, the irresponsible kid who coasts along and leaves Eve to pick up behind her. And Eve, of course, is the doormat of the film. Just about everyone, her sisters and dad included, walk all over her. But, at the end, when Eve finally realises that sometimes, she needs to hang up--to disconnect--from these people who won't give her a moment's rest, she finally grows up a little, lets go of her past a little, and yes, even wins the respect of her sisters... more than a little.

I've seen user reviews that find Hanging Up a poor comedy. It wasn't meant to be a comedy, folks. This is drama, bordering on melodrama, and the funny moments aren't really supposed to happen. (Unintentionally funny, perhaps, but there really are no genuinely amusing moments until the end, when the sisters bond over Thanksgiving turkey in the kitchen.) To that end, the movie is quite well-presented, and no punches are held in the portrayals of the relationships between the four main characters. When Lou gatecrashes Eve's house, wrecking her son's birthday party and calling her names, even snarling that her mom wanted to "throw [her] back", it becomes clear just how difficult it is for Eve to keep loving this guy who stopped being loving and kind to her so long ago. Conversations are just as important in revealing undertones between the characters: for example, Eve comparing herself and Maddy to Hondas, as opposed to Georgia's Lamborghini, or Eve finally letting loose and calling Georgia a bitch (not to her face, of course), but admitting that she can't ever hate Georgia because Georgia was the only mom she ever had. The relationships between the sisters are real, and quite lovingly drawn out. It's actually a better movie for not trying to mix the comedy with the drama, and defies people who've had to care for an ailing, unresponsive parent to connect with Eve's suffering and Georgia and Maddy's attempts to escape the pain.

Although Keaton doesn't quite get to mess with the movie too much, she does show off her directorial flair with her opening montage of the three girls as they're growing up, intermixed with pictures of a young Walter Matthau. She uses similar visual images to recall earlier moments in the movie to great effect, and her penchant for nice long tracking shots helps sustain dramatic tension during the long quarrel between the sisters just before they get the fateful call from the hospital. Keaton also brings out the best performance I have ever seen from Ryan. One in which she's not skittish and trying to use her charm to paper over her inability to convince. In fact, she is genuinely convincing in this role, and when she clings to her husband Joe (Adam Arkin) after her dad lashes out horrifically at her, Ryan is without a doubt the best she's ever been. The movie is undoubtedly hers, as Eve is the protagonist and the one whose journey is the most significant and touching.

That's not to say the other gals don't get a look-in. Kudrow is decent in her small, not too well-fleshed-out role. Keaton, as usual, turns in an excellent performance, though it's clear that her part in this movie was much more to do with direction than acting. (Her character is hardly onscreen, except for the last quarter of the movie.) But she makes Georgia more real than you might expect, and at the end, when Georgia shows the tiniest crack in her impenetrable veneer, admitting that she's the tiniest bit jealous of Eve's heart, you buy it.

The final scenes are a wonderful touch to a movie that could have been great. (I'm not sure why it isn't. It certainly touched me, but there was something about it that was a little too arch. Otherwise, it was very competent.) Your sisters are people you come home to. Yes, you might hate their guts, but at the end, they're the ones you giggled with at night, or had pillow fights with, and who'll cover you in flour, Donna Karan dress or not. As Georgia, Eve and Maddy fight it out in the kitchen, Keaton pulls the camera back quietly, into the dark corridor, and heads for a quiet black-out. Only the lights in the hallway remain, before they too, flicker out. It's quietly beautiful, and a lovely way to close a film about three kids who grew up in such separate ways, but belonged together in the end. It's a good film about family, and should be seen that way. In that light, surely it is more than competent, though nowhere near classic.