Review of Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) by Donovan D — 27 Mar 2008

When you remember that Woody Allen was an Oscars favorite (and won a handful of them too) in spite of ostensibly being a maker of comedies, its becomes quite clear how much quality is lacking in most contemporary comedies.

There are few better examples of what is so right about Allen's comedies than the beautiful Hannah and Her Sisters. Allen here works with a broad canvas - the film is at its core a family saga - and Allen uses his prodigious talents to craft a film that juggles so many disparate yet interconnected stories and present it as a cohesive and marvellously fleshed-out whole.

Like his later Crimes and Misdemeanors, Allen is able to find the middle ground between his more broad 70s comedies and his love of Bergman, creating as poignant and insightful a film as his hero while making us laugh as well.

Allen has an amazing cast on hand, and all these characters are so well drawn and essayed that even the comic relief of Allen's Mickey is grounded by very real anxieties and questions about the value of life.

While I would suggest that Crimes and Misdemeanors is probably the better film, there have been few films by Allen that I have enjoyed more than Hannah and Her Sisters. A masterpiece.