Hanging Up

Starring: Meg Ryan, Diane Keaton, Lisa Kudrow, Walter Matthau, Cloris Leachman
Directed by: Diane Keaton
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Comedy, Drama
2000

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: Three sisters (Meg Ryan, Diane Keaton, Lisa Kudrow) bicker and bond over their careers, lives, and concern for their dying father (Walter Matthau).

Review:

Tim: I wanted to like this movie. It was Walter Matthau's final role, and featured a very good cast. I've always loved Meg Ryan, and Diane Keaton is a very good actress as well. Even Cloris Leachman shows up for a scene. Unfortunately, this film is a complete bust. In the words of my wife, "It was boring." I agree. There's just not enough here to keep you engaged. The film is quite flawed, and I did not especially care for it.

The story seems like it would be perfect for a dramedy. Three sisters have a love/hate relationship with each other and their father. The story centers on the middle sister, who spends most of the time at the hospital and trying to get her sisters to help. The problem is that this is what constitutes about 70% of the entire film. I felt like we were watching the same conversations over and over again, with very little forward momentum. Not much happens for the majority of this movie, which gives us little reason to pay attention. The film is very talky, especially when you consider that for all the gabbing, not much is actually said.

I really like Meg Ryan, but I don't believe she was great here. She did her usual frantic, unfocused routine. It just felt old here. She had the most screen time, but I felt like her performance was just average. Diane Keaton seemed believable as the egotistical head of a magazine named after herself. However, I thought she was fairly weak. It almost felt like she was too busy directing the movie to give a really good performance herself. She was average. Lisa Kudrow isn't someone I would call especially talented. She was fine here, but did nothing particularly interesting or memorable. There's dozens of actresses who could have given an as good or better performance to her. I love Walter Matthau, but it was pretty obvious he wasn't well during the filming here. He has a few wonderful moments, but this wasn't one of his better roles. As you know, Matthau passed away before the film was released. It's a shame he couldn't have gone out on better terms. I loved seeing Cloris Leachman, but I wish she actually had something to do and spent more than 2 minutes on screen.

One of the problems with this film is that there weren't any real likeable characters. Ryan got the closest, but I can't say I especially loved her. Kudrow and Keaton were incredibly selfish, self-absorbed people. Matthau played a selfish alcoholic not in control of his mental faculties. Leachman played a horrible mother. It's almost laughable how despicable nearly everyone in this film was. Why would I want to spent 95 minutes with these people?

It's certainly possible that someone out there loved Hanging Up. Maybe they know people like this in real life and can relate. Personally, I was horribly bored watching a talky, meandering movie about people I disliked. This is not a recipe for success, and I think it best if Diane Keaton stop directing movies.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 5.5



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