Review of Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) by Thiago A — 22 Feb 2013

"Hannah and Her Sisters" is about equal comedy and drama and it really works because of how genuine the movie feels. If you hear the premise, it sounds like a typical romantic comedy : A man is dissatisfied with his marriage and falls in love with his wife's less uptight sister. Meanwhile "Hannah" has an ex-husband who is convinced he's about to die and her other sister is trying to figure out what she wants to do while bouncing between odd jobs. Who will get together? who will fall apart? When you break it down you see that a lot of romantic comedies have similar plot elements or characters, the wacky best friend, people keeping information from each other leading up to several misunderstandings, the current spouse vs. the more exciting and free one, the wacky and awkward situations where people who want to avoid each other are forced in the same room and the comedy spread in-between to lighten up the subject.

What makes this rise above all of the other similarly themed romantic comedies is the characters. They feel really genuine and are all well fleshed out. "Elliot" and "Lee", even though they shouldn't be together acknowledge that they have an attraction, "Mickey" (played by Woody Allen) goes through a religious crisis and you learn a lot about every character in a short amount of time (the movie is less than 1hr and 45 minutes). Even some side characters feel real (for example, an architect takes us on a tour of the city so he can impress a couple of women and we get to actually see the tour he gives us so you can tell that this guy is genuine and it makes you want to see one of the girls get together with him... but which one?) and all of the performances and great and are totally convincing. There are subtle touches that add a lot of reality to the roles, there's some really touching moments (like when "Elliot" talks to his wife and you see what he can and can't admit to her) and a lot of really funny moments (like when "Mickey" visits countless doctor's offices to get more opinions on his situation). The movie is really smart and doesn't shy away from subjects that are relevant to you but are seldom discussed in films and yet it never feels like it has an agenda or it's trying to push an opinion on you. It's just like watching real people playing out their lives and that makes it extremely satisfying to watch, especially at the end where it all falls together perfectly. With a lot of laughs, smart writing and some good drama too, "Hannah and Her Sisters" is terrific. (Dvd, February 15, 2013).