Film Review: Hanging Up (2000)
History of Oscars is the history of injustice, but the same thing can be said of history of Razzies. In a parallel universe where Oscars have been won by Citizen Kane and Pulp Fiction Razzie should have been won by Hanging Up, 2000 film directed by Diane Keaton.
The film is based on Delia Ephron’s eponymous novel and she also co-wrote the script with her famous sister Nora Ephron. The plot deals with three sisters that have achieved brilliant careers, but at the expense of mutual contact, which is maintained only by cell phones. The oldest of them is Georgia Mozzell (played by Keaton), which is an editor of influential women’s magazine titled Georgia. The youngest sister Maddy (played by Lisa Kudrow) became the star of television soap operas. Middle sister Eve (played by Meg Ryan) professionally organises celebrations and has husband Joe Parker (played by Adam Arkin) and son Jesse (played by Jesse James). Eve have recently been facing another, bigger and unpleasant challenge of taking care of her old alcoholic father Lou (played by Walter Matthau) who is dying of Alzheimer’s disease. For Eve this is an opportunity to remember traumas from her past, but also to re-establish family ties.
From the very start it is quite obvious that Keaton and Ephron sisters are taking audience for a ride. What was advertised in trailers in light-hearted comedy is actually an utterly dark and depressive drama. In the opening scenes we are introduced to a man who is dying from incurable disease and, while doing so, loses any trace of his dignity. While most film makers with brain would look at the subject as an opportunity to discuss pros and cons of euthanasia, Keaton believed that the audience is going to experience laugh riot and merely because the man in question is played by veteran comedian Walther Matthau, for whom this role was the last in career. When Matthau doesn’t appear on screen, Hanging Up tries to sell the comedy in the form of scenes where sisters simply scream at each other in a way that would erase any trace of sympathy in the audience. After the father dies, in predictably corny scene, it is followed by even cornier scene of sisters reconciling with each other and thus re-establishing balance in the film’s universe. But before this happens viewers has to endure probably the most demanding hour and half of their lives – each scene last five times more than it should, every joke is unfunny, every dialogue line and gesture is predictable, every character is hopelessly dislikeable and any attempt to sell this as a feminist film result in viewers having to struggle with their suddenly discovered misogyny. Hanging Up might have been forgiven for being poorly made, but not the way Hollywood mixed its hypocrisy with cruel treatment of human condition.
RATING: 1/10 (--)
Blog in Croatian https://draxblog.com
Blog in English https://draxreview.wordpress.com/
Leofinance blog https://leofinance.io/@drax.leo
Unstoppable Domains: https://unstoppabledomains.com/?ref=3fc23fc42c1b417
Hiveonboard: https://hiveonboard.com?ref=drax
Bitcoin Lightning HIVE donations: https://v4v.app/v1/lnurlp/qrcode/drax
Rising Star game: https://www.risingstargame.com?referrer=drax
1Inch: https://1inch.exchange/#/r/0x83823d8CCB74F828148258BB4457642124b1328e
BTC donations: 1EWxiMiP6iiG9rger3NuUSd6HByaxQWafG
ETH donations: 0xB305F144323b99e6f8b1d66f5D7DE78B498C32A7
