HANGING UP
US, 2000, 95 minutes, Colour.
Meg Ryan, Diane Keaton, Lisa Kudrow, Walter Matthau, Adam Arkin.
Directed by Diane Keaton.
Hanging Up was written by the team of sisters, Norah and Delia Ephron. They have written such screenplays as Sleepless in Seattle and You've Got Mail. These latter films also starred Meg Ryan.
This time direction is not by Norah Ephron but by Diane Keaton, who had made such films as Heaven and Unstrung Heroes. The film focuses on three sisters, a feminine perspective from the writers and the director. One sister, played by Meg Ryan, has the responsibility of looking after their father who has to go into a nursing home. The sister played by Diane Keaton is preoccupied with the success of her magazine. The youngest sister, played by Lisa Kudrow, lacks self-confidence and is very conscious of her being a star in a soap opera. The film shows the interaction between the three, culminating in a fight but ultimately resolved, on the occasion of the death of their father. Walter Matthau enjoys himself as the father.
The film is a mixture of screwball comedy style and serious themes. Meg Ryan is somewhat hard to believe in the central role, playing in an artificially strained style for the serious and the comic. She is far more effective when she is more reflective and silent. However, the film treats contemporary themes and focuses on the nature of family and relationships.
1.A film about family, relationships between sisters, relationships of daughters to father? The family, marriage and marriage break-up? Love, tensions, self-centredness? Disputes, resolutions, love? The opening credits, the photos of the girls, the introduction to each of the three sisters?
2.The use of phones and phone calls throughout the film, interrupting real life for answering calls? Phone calls as a way of communication, as a way of cutting off communication? The latter part of the film and the advice to break free and turn off the phone? The significance of the title?
3.Eve and her father, the character of her father, the questionnaire at the hospital and his not telling the truth, his fooling around, the discussions about John Wayne and the photo with Eve, guns and sexuality? His begging his daughter not to stay in the home? His losing his memory?
4.Eve and her flashbacks, the memories of her mother and her mother ignoring her? Her being on the phone and crashing the car? The reaction of the doctor to the crash, his talk about his mother and her later appearing and discussing family with Eve? Eve and her absent-mindedness, the car crashes? Her relationship with Joe, with her son? Tripping over his toys? The introduction to the character of Eve and audiences identifying with her and her responsibilities?
5.The character of Maddie, the youngest daughter, feeling ignored by the other two, her wanting to be a rock star, unsettled in life, her being in the soap opera, her identifying with her character and the situations of the soap opera? Her lack of response to Eve and concern about her father? Ringing about her dog and the coma? Bringing the dog over for Eve to look after it? Her sharing with Eve, going to the speech by Georgia and their reaction? Watching the soap opera with their father? Her decision to move out of the soap opera?
6.Eve, her work, preparing the party, the Nixon questionnaire, the people and their demands to get Georgia?
7.The father in the hospital, ringing up wanting Chinese food, playing cards, the sexual advance and his memories of his wife, mixing her up with Eve? Eve and the flashbacks to her father, his being in bed with the dentist's assistants? Eve looking through the photos and remembering her life? Her father becoming dependent on her, his wife walking out, his grief, taking the pills? His going missing from the institution and going back to their home?
8.The portrait of the mother, her leaving, Eve's visit, her mother explaining that she never wanted to be a mother? The self-centredness and its being justified? The effect on Eve? On the other daughters?
9.Georgia, smart style, the oldest sister, being a mother to Eve? The discussions about her being sacked - and her comeback with starting her own magazine, calling it after herself? The fifth anniversary issue? Photographers, make-up?
10.The flashback to 1993, the bond between Maddie and Eve, Georgia being fired? Their discussions and being able to talk to one another? Eve's son and his birthday, her father drunk, his ruining the party, wanting to ring his wife, his malicious comments to Eve, "Throw that one back"? Eve's dismay, her husband's anger and forbidding her father into the house?
11.The difficulties of the father in hospital, Georgia advising him to sign a blank cheque and his resistance? The doctor's mother talking to Eve about the accident and the insurance - and people wanting to make others miserable? Her comments about the necessity to disconnect? Eve telling a lie about her mother being killed in a fire and her father's reaction, "I won"? The irony of the dog eating the mobile phone and Eve pulling the cord to the phones in her house?
12.The party, Georgia's arrival as a celebrity? The women wanting to hear her, discussions about the magazine, her self-centred speech, the grief about her father's illness and her dramatising it? Her comments about death and helping women to face these realities?
13.The fight and the truth about Georgia and her selfishness, even stealing Eve's recipe? The three sisters and the clash?
14.Their father in a coma, their not talking to each other, the gradual reconciliation, the puzzle about the actress - and the father saying "June Allyson" and dying?
15.The final reconciliation, Eve sitting at the table and her memories? The flour fight and the bond between them? The experience of their family, the absent mother, growing up, the strengths and weaknesses of their father, final illness and death?
