Ensofter Overrated and overhyped

Matrixiole Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Geraldine The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

aquauver I am a fan of Woody.But Without the fact, it is a great movie.First of all,the story is distinctive. Occasionally it includes funny dialogues,for instance a man haunted by a stupid idea.It is so complicated and so funny.If other directer hosted this type of movie,It would be horrible.Above all,It is lovely movie to me.

oOoBarracuda Obligatory "Woody Allen opens a film like no one else is capable of, always in an amazing engaging way" sentence. Seriously though, I say this every time because it's always true. By this point, I would be shocked if a Woody Allen film had a poor opening. The 1986 feature of Woody Allen's found him starring as a hypochondriac ex-husband of Hannah (Mia Farrow) and examined the lives of she and her sisters and their various life trials over the span of two years at Thanksgiving. Hannah and Her Sisters was another of Allen's film to have a largely serious tone as the issues of infidelity and the meaning of life was explored. Through Hannah and Her Sisters, Woody Allen achieved, again, the depth of raw human emotions and the power they can have over someone.Sisters Hannah (Mia Farrow), Holly (Dianne Wiest), and Lee (Barbara Hershey) had their share of upheaval raised by showbiz parents. Their mother believes she is still in her prime and able to woo any man which usually means she is neglectful towards the girls' father. With a family full of people who were ill-equipped to take care of themselves, Hannah stepped up and acted as the chief adult of the family, tending to everyone's needs and pushing her own aside. This aspect of Hannah's life has extended into her marriage. Hannah's husband Elliot (Michael Caine) has grown bored of his marriage to the saint that he thinks Hannah is and has moved his attention toward her sister, Lee. Lee is a vulnerable alcoholic seemingly awaiting someone to take her on as a project and make her into a functioning adult. Lee has lived with Frederick (Max Von Sydow) for years as he teaches her about art and life and gives him some connection to the outside world, as he detests everyone except Lee. Holly is struggling with her calling in life as she goes to countless auditions trying to make it as an artist and also run the catering business with her friend as her other pet project. Holly, especially, goes to Hannah for everything including money to survive. Hannah is the only one who has a good handle on her life. She believes she has a good marriage, she has a good relationship with her ex-husband, Mickey (Woody Allen) whom she shares two children with. Hannah wants so badly for everyone in her life to be happy that she even set up Mickey with her sister Holly after her divorce. Sometimes, though, being the one who always fixes every problem they come across can make those closest to them feel unneeded, feelings Elliot blames for pursuing an affair with Hannah's sister. When he contemplates telling Hannah he is in love with Lee, the perfect life Hannah has tried so diligently to manage may crash under the weight of her husband;'s unfulfillment.Hannah and Her Sisters is largely told as two independent stories only occasionally intersecting and that format works for me anyway, but especially with the brilliant writing and directing of Woody Allen. Acting and the relatability of the characters usually have little influence over how I view a film. Hannah and Her Sisters, however, had a character so relatable to me, I felt like I was watching myself on screen. Always the philosopher, I struggle with the concept of life and its meaning and the purpose of a finite existence. Because I am so uneasy about a number of questions I struggle with about life and their persistence in my mind, the character of Mickey was one that hit especially close to my heart. Many a night have found me waking up in a cold sweat with the sudden realization that we are spinning on a ball in space that will someday cease to exist, driven to a dread that I can't shake without talking myself down. I'm basically a female version of Woody Allen which probably explains why I've held a soft spot in my heart all these years for his films. It's either that or the fact that I never want to visit New York as much as I do after watching one of his films, either or, probably.

suite92 The Three Acts:The initial tableaux: We start with a Thanksgiving dinner gathering at Hannah and Elliot's house. Sisters Lee and Holly are there. Lee's husband Frederick is a bit too stand-offish for such gatherings. Holly might start in catering, and asks Hannah for a loan to get started. Elliot muses in the opening narration about his attraction to Lee, and how he should stifle it, but cannot. Father Evan and mother Norma, two veteran entertainers, entertain at piano and song.Mickey (Hannah's ex) is a hypochondriac who produces an edgy television show that is frequently in conflict with the censors. Gail tries to keep Mickey on track as he bounces from memory to memory of his past marriage and his past partnership with Norman. Perhaps worst of all, Mickey becomes convinced that he has a brain tumor.Delineation of conflicts: Mickey has to fight his hypochondria, and his slowly waning binding to Hannah. Lee and Elliot have to figure out whatever it is that is going on between them. Holly needs to figure out where she's going in life.Resolution: The threads move forward more or less organically. Nicely done.

bkoganbing As much as one might like Woody Allen's schlep characters he has created on the big screen most of his films have an extremely pessimistic view of life. Hannah And Her Sisters is one of the most pessimistic films I've ever viewed. It has the message that nothing in life lasts forever especially relationships.The title character is the then Mrs. Woody Allen Mia Farrow. She is one of three sisters the other two being Barbara Hershey and Dianne Weist. All three of them have man trouble and some with the same men. They get that from their show business parents Lloyd Nolan and Maureen O'Sullivan who have stayed together and tolerated their mutual infidelities because they're both used to each other and for that time old cliché for the sake of the children. This was Nolan's farewell performance.The men and some of them aren't any great shakes and some of them they have in common are worse than the women. Michael Caine who won his first Best Supporting Actor Oscar moves from woman to woman always with complete rationalization. Kind of like an intellectual Alfie. Woody Allen is his usual schlep character probably worse than usual, a man who definitely thinks way too much.It's a credit to Woody Allen that he was able to write a film for which he got an Oscar for an Original Screenplay and this is original that had women as the primary characters and the stronger ones. Even Dianne Weist who is the weakest of the sisters is better than the men around her and she won a Best Supporting Actress Award.Life does imitate art, truly it does. Woody Allen got himself involved with his adopted stepdaughter Soon-Yi Previn and her mother got shed of Woody with the speed of one of the characters in this film. Allen always went deep into analyzing his characters, maybe in Hannah And Her Sisters he went a little too deep.Hannah And Her Sisters is unusual and good, but not probably to everyone's taste.