I had seen some previews for this and my mom had also wanted to watch it so we finally sat down with a copy. The previews were better. I really wanted to like this movie because of the actors that were in it. But I just couldn’t. In fact, instead of relaxing watching this movie, I felt more stressed afterwards.
Hanging Up is the story of three sisters, and their father who is slowly losing his hold on reality. What turns from alcoholism to dementia is a sign that Eve, Georgia, and Maddy’s father is not the loving person he used to be. While Georgia is off promoting her magazine and Maddy a busy soapstar, Eve is left to try to pick up the pieces and care for her father. She is pretty devoted to him and the movie is interspersed with memories of the family, and especially memories of her and him.
Characters:
Meg Ryan: Eve Mozell Marks
Diane Keaton: Georgia Mozell
Lisa Kudrow: Maddy Mozell
Walter Matthau: Lou Mozell
Adam Arkin: Joe Marks
Shaun Duke: Dr. Omar Kunundar
Ann Bortolotti: Ogmed Kunundar
For such great actors in a movie, this film was a mess. I didn’t find any of the characters likable except for maybe the Kunundars. And even they were slightly unbelievable. Eve drove me crazy and was so busy hopping around and yelling and just in general providing crazed confusion that I could feel my stress levels rise as I watched. Maddy and Georgia were unsympathetic to Eve’s plight and pretty selfish and when all three were together and fighting I felt the stress come on then too. Dysfunctional is putting it lightly. Walter Matthau did a pretty good job mainly because he was uncomfortable to watch which is very realistic since people with dementia do some uncomfortable things.
The plot was actually pretty decent and heartfelt. If it hadn’t of been for the scripting I might have really enjoyed it. Thinking about the future loss of a loved one is never easy and people can begin to grieve even before the person is gone, and I think this movie reflected that aspect well. But the dialogue and lousy characters had to go right in and ruin that aspect of the movie for me. There were no special effects and the music was just background, so the whole movie had to be held up by just the plot along and unfortunately it just wasn’t there.
Not a movie I’d recommend by any means. There was just so much that went wrong that could have been done so right. That being said, my mom who watched it with me seemed to like it and cried quite a few times. But this is the same woman whose cried at a Budweiser commercial so I’m not sure how reliable a gauge that is.
Review by M. Reynard 2011