Customer Reviews

Hanging Up [VHS]

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(21)
2 star:		(13)
1 star:		(31)

 

 

It's now strange to see Meg Ryan outside her usual genre--the romantic comedy. This movie is a touching drama of an ailing parent and his three daughters. I think the reason so many people were disappointed with this film is because it was advertised as a comedy. Though the main theme is sad, the film also has comic touches. Overall though I don't believe this could be called a comedy. Good acting was turned in by all. Well worth seeing at least once.

This movie is not at all what I expected. Yes, Meg Ryan, Diane Keaton and Lisa Kudrow are great actresses, and they're the ones that make the film work.

Eve (Ryan), unlike Maddy (Kudrow) and Georgia (Keaton), is often worried about her father's (Walter Matthau) health, and she devotes the majority of her time to him. Maddy and Georgia take their father for granted, except for Eve. But in the midst of their father's failing health, the three sisters reestablish their relationship.

This movie is not a comedy -- there are more dramatic moments than funny ones. But I still think it's worth watching. Ryan, Keaton and Kudrow are a great trio, even in a mediocre film like this one.

This movie explores the complex bonds of siblings and how they relate to each other and their parents. On the surface, it seems like a comedy, but it has more than enough moments to make one pull out the box of tissues. Underneath the comic relief we see the frustrations, jealousy, misunderstandings and fierce that love that make up the relationships we have with our siblings. It explores love, guilt, fear, anger, happiness and loss with equal scrutiny. After watching this movie, I immediately wanted to watch it WITH my two sisters! It's a really good way to take a close look at our own families and how we relate to each other. Great acting buy the female leads and a wonderfully touching performance by the late Walter Matthau.

I just watched this film on DVD, and to a regular guy like myself (I think I'm pretty regular), it was not a bad experience. Maybe it's because my mom and her siblings are currently dealing with their mother right now, and the movie struck a chord...

Anyway, I thought Meg Ryan was terrific in this film. In her other films she always tried to be cute and funny. When I was younger I liked that, but then I found her boring. But she's good in this one as the middle child who has the (mis)luck of caring for her dying father. Keaton, on the other hand, is totally unconvincing as either a magazine mogul or first daughter, and she had no screen presence at all; plus her outfit and makeup, which are meant to make her character look younger than the actress herself, are a disaster. Kudlow does what she does best: playing a dumb, clueless blonde.

As for the story, it has certain charms, but ultimately falls apart because it's confusing and melodramatic. (Be sure to watch a deleted scene on the DVD.) As some reviewers pointed out all too often the movie seems directionless, and the on-screen chemistry of the three sisters is rather lacking. Funny Evie keeps asking about the name of a "bland" actress from the 50s; the movie just gets more and more bland. But Ryan is good enough that she keeps the film moving and makes me like her again.

The late Walter Matthau ended his long and illustrious career as a film actor in "Hanging Up," playing, appropriately, the dying father of three adult daughters. I wish I could say that the vehicle he chose as his eventual swan song were one truly worthy of his enormous skill and talent. Unfortunately - or rather fortunately - however, this will not be the film for which he is most remembered.

Like so many films, "Hanging Up" starts off with the most noble of intentions. Writer Delia Ephron and director Diane Keaton have attempted to come to terms with the most complex issue facing the aging baby boomer generation: how does one cope with ailing, aging and dying parents while trying to keep a grip on one's own hectic life and personal commitments? And, to make matters more complicated, how does one expend the physical and emotional energy needed for such a task when the parent himself is often irascible, crusty and even downright unlikable in his behavior and nature? And, finally, how does a wounded child ultimately find it in his or her heart to forgive the parent and arrive at that moment of reconciliation so crucial when death finally comes?

When "Hanging Up" focuses on this theme, it achieves moments of point and relevance. All of us can identify with the main character, Eve (Meg Ryan), a sweet, warmhearted young woman who, alone of the three daughters, has unflaggingly dedicated herself to the care of a father who, more often than not, strikes out at her in unappreciative scorn and anger. Wearied and harassed by the enormous burdens of her hectic life and her own inability to say "no" to the people who demand so much from her, Eve emerges as a truly winning and believable character. Unfortunately, her two sisters, Georgia (Diane Keaton), a magazine magnate, and Maddy (Lisa Kudrow), a soap opera actress, come across as shallow, two-dimensional characters whose self-absorption and seeming indifference are (ho hum) really masks for the insecurity and hurt hidden deep beneath their composed surfaces.

Somehow, however, for all its attempts to deal with a truly universal theme, "Hanging Up" never seems quite real in its look and demeanor - it always feels like a movie. Maybe it is the overall slickness of the approach that undermines the seriousness of the drama. The actresses, good though they are, seem somehow too glamorous, their careers too unrepresentative of most of the people in the audience. Another problem is that the film can never seem to settle on an appropriate tone. One moment we find ourselves steeped in searing drama followed the next by a scene of trivial slapstick. Time and again, Ryan is forced to trip over a discarded toy, tangle with an overgrown mutt or bang away at an uncooperative coffee dispenser. Such incidents end up reducing the level of the drama to little more than sitcom status.

"Hanging Up" has, however, been blessed with a wonderful cast. Ryan, Keaton, Kudrow and Matthau pore on the charm and play off each other nicely. (And the film has some devilish fun playing up the physical similarities between Matthau and Richard Nixon). These fine performers obviously had a terrific time making the film together. That is why one regrets the fact, that for all their hard work, the film they left behind is so lacking in credibility and grit. At the end of his career and life, Matthau deserved better.

This movie is like Mars Attacks: it has a great cast, but the movie is bad. One would think that a movie with Diane Keaton, Lisa Kudrow, Meg Ryan, and Walter Matthau is a must see. However, I feel that since they all make such different movies (for example: Kudrow has made mostly screwball comedies, Ryan has made most cutsy romantic comedies, etc.) that when they get together in this movie, you can't really figure out if it's supposed to be a drama, or a comedy. For most of the movie, I felt sorry for Meg Ryan's character, who was having to take care of her dying father all by herself. However, when you see the flashbacks that occur so often in the movie, you almost wish the father would hurry up and die and that Meg Ryan would just put him in a nursing home run by Nurse Ratched or something. Ryan's sisters really have no purpose in the movie, until the end when all the sisters bond at the moment their sarcastic, corny father dies. Overall, this is a surprisingly terrible movie that never ends.

This is one of the those movies with so much talent that you would think that it can't miss. It did. The writers, unsure of what they wanted, a comedy or a drama, produced a movie which is neither. It's not funny. It is not dramatic. And, after watching it, I am not sure if it was even suppose to be either. Do youself a favor, skip it and rent or buy a different movie with these actors. They all have done good work, this is not it.

If you insist on seeing it, or you are still curious, tell me - what is funny about a comedy where half the story is set in a hospital? I guess there can by funny elements there, but besides Walter Matheau trying to grope young nurses, they didn't use any of them. Instead we have a story about an elderly man who is losing some of his memory, isolated from his family, who are isolated from each other by technology. It is a lonely film, and a sad one. Unfortunately since they were, I think, trying to make a comedy, I would have to say that "Hanging Up" failed on every level possible. Skip it.

I was confused by this movie. I thought it was going to be a comedy, but instead, am still not sure WHAT it was! Sure, there were some funny parts, but they almost seem out of context with the rest of the movie. In the film, three sisters (Meg Ryan, Diane Keaton, and Lisa Kudro) come to terms with their ailing father (played by Walter Mathauw). Meg Ryan is the one shouldering all the responsibility, as the other two sisters are completely "absorbed" in their own lives. Meg Ryan's character is constantly ON THE PHONE, answering the phone, tripping over something as she races for the phone, well, you get the idea. All in all, the movie was very stressful, insofaras the d.. phone never stopped ringing! I had to take two aspirin after watching, because all that phone ringing gave me a headache! I guess this movie was supposed to be a heartwarming account of how the three sisters finally "re-connect," but the movie lacks any real focus and kind of just stumbles along. In addition, the character development is weak; you don't end up really knowing or caring about anyone in the film. My opinion? Definitely RENT before BUYING! I can only say, I WISH I HAD!

This movie was so bad that I want to tell everyone I know to SAVE THEIR MONEY! I would rate it a negative number if that was allowed. Not only was the acting terrible and story suicidally depressing, I couldn't believe it was billed as a comedy. The only thing funny was Diane Keaton playing Meg Ryan and Lisa Kudrow's older sister. Geez, she's like 100 or something isn't she?

But the worst part, the absolutely worst part was Meg Ryan's irritatingly dirty, skanky, hacked off, jaggedy hair. I suppose it wasn't bad enough that her hair has been terrible in nearly every movie for quite a few years but this was the worse. How long does it take to get someone's hair to look that dirty and scabby? Reminds me of the hair on the drug addicts in "Drugstore Cowboy." Must take some magic ingredient or something to make it look that bad since I haven't seen it yet on Meg wannabes.

Depressing, depressing, miss it at all costs. Should be taken off the market. I will never see another Nora Ephron movie as long as I live.

This movie markets itself as a comedy. The only thing comedic about it at all is that it thinks it's funny.This movie shoul be avoided at all costs. If someone invites you over to see this movie, leave the country. If it is given to you as a gift I would be questioning their frienship. I was so looking forward to seeing Meg Ryan but not even she was able to redeem this sad and sorry tale of three selfish sisters with two divorced selfish parents. Walter Matheau appears in this movie but forgets to act and rather ends up delivering a poorly written script that simply requires him to be mentally vacant, which he does deliver. Meg Ryans' child and husband (who are introduced as characters) in the movie, have no real role and simply fade into oblivion leaving you to wonder who on earth is looking after this child while she is off being a martyr. Lisa Kudrow (and I am a big fan of hers) presents a no-brainer performance as the soap star sister, whose only redeeming feature seems to be that she likes dogs (surely anyone that likes dogs can't be that bad). And as for Dianne Keaton, any casting agent who seriously expects the audience to believe she is the 40'ish year old sister of the gorgeous Lisa and Meg is an idiot. She looks more like their mother and acts more like a child. Don't bother with this movie, avoid it at all costs. Donate the money to charity that it would have cost you to see Hanging Up (at least that will make you feel better than having watched this trash).