HANNAH AND HER SISTERS
A film review by Andrew Hicks
Copyright 1996 Andrew Hicks / Fatboy Productions
(1986) *** (out of four)
HANNAH AND HER SISTERS is an intricate, well thought- out ensemble drama from Woody Allen, who began with this movie a string of adult dramas like CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS, SEPTEMBER and ANOTHER WOMAN. This one follows the loves and ambitions of one extended family, all of whom are connected by a woman named Hannah (Mia Farrow). Michael Caine, her current husband (and probably the only man who looks goofier than Woody Allen), is infatuated with Hannah's sister Lee (Barbara "Collagen Lips" Hershey), who is married to a moody artist (Max von Sydow).
Then you've got the two other sisters, Holly (perennial Allen favorite Diane Wiest) and April (Carrie Fisher), in competition for the same man, along with Farrow's ex-husband (Allen), the hypochondriac producer of a sketch comedy show (In a rare moment that reveals a little too much of Woody, he complains about a sketch that the censors have ordered cut, wondering why they could be so narrow-minded, when his head writer Julie Kavner replies, "Child molestation is a very touchy subject.) who comes face to face with death and eternity when he finds out he may have a brain tumor.
As if all these story lines weren't enough, Allen manages to work in a few of his customary flashbacks, one a scene in which he and Mia find out he's infertile and have to ask two of their best friends if they wouldn't mind donating some sperm for a worthy cause, and the other a comic sequence of a blind date from hell with Allen and Wiest. The latter is loaded with the usual Woody Wit and figures into the plot toward the end, the former is unnecessary and is never resolved. We see the friends react in disgust at the comment, "All you have to do is masturbate into a cup" (which Woody would no doubt videotape), but later we find out Woody and Mia had two kids together. Who's the father, out of curiosity?
Although the whole sperm storyline is out of place, the others are delicately balanced so that we retain interest in all of them as they develop and eventually intertwine. Allen has an obvious talent for juggling multiple story lines even if the resolutions for some of them aren't ideal. In HANNAH AND HER SISTERS, he tackles his familiar topics of adultery and the philosophical mysteries of life as his character receives a reprieve and gets a new lease on life for only a little while before realizing death is still inevitable and life is still as meaningless as ever. He tries to convert to Catholicism and later Hari Krishna, but to no avail. Only Woody could make so many serious points about an issue like that while also keeping the comedy going. HANNAH AND HER SISTERS marked the beginning of a new era of large scale seriousness in comedy from Mr. Allen.
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