Sunday, February 18, 2007

Hannah and Her Sisters - More 31 Days of Oscar

Hannah and Her Sisters

I've seen a few Woody Allen films here and there, but I hope to kind of fill in the gaps, because even though I don't tend to love them, there are always some great moments.

Here, Mia Farrow, Dianne Wiest, and Barbara Hershey play three sisters who struggle with relationships. Michael Caine is married to Farrow, but lusts after Hershey (kinda creepy that Woody would write a movie about a guy wanting to leave Mia Farrow for her sister only about ten years before he leaves Mia Farrow for her daughter). Max von Sydow is Hershey's live-in boyfriend, but he's a moody artist who's intolerant of everyone but her. Woody Allen is Mia's ex-husband and a hypochondriac. Wiest and her best friend Carrie Fisher meet Sam Watterson at a party and their friendship is strained over which one will end up with him.

It was weird to see Dianne Wiest and Sam Watterson sharing scenes, having seen them many times on Law & Order together but looking 15 years older. I apparently missed cameos by Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Lewis Black, but I did enjoy catching a young John Turturro as a pissed off writer.

As usual for Woody Allen movies, his character is neurotic, funny, and philosophical. Here he goes through a cancer scare, which sends him on a quest to find religion. Plenty of laughs here, and some interesting thoughts.

But also typical for me and Woody Allen movies, I wasn't grabbed by the story, or all that many of the characters. I appreciate that they're all well-crafted and distinct and real, but maybe I'm just not at a point in my life where I understand certain impulses... like old boring Michael Caine having an attractive, interesting, and sweet wife and wanting to leave her for her sister.

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