Entertainment Headlines
Sunday February 13 10:17 PM ET
Schmaltzing it Up
Hanging Up (Family melodrama, color, PG-13, 1:33)
By Emanuel Levy
HOLLYWOOD (Variety) - Three of Hollywood's most beautiful and gifted actresses, Meg Ryan, Diane Keaton and Lisa Kudrow, are vastly underutilized in ``Hanging Up,'' a shamelessly sappy family melodrama that bears the schmaltzy sensibility of Nora Ephron, pic's producer and co-scripter, rather than that of Diane Keaton, its director.
Pic's a throwback to Hollywood's seriocomedies about love and rivalry among disparate sisters, here brought together when their old but still flamboyant dad is hospitalized. Except for its glorious A-list cast, the film would fit snugly on the small screen in terms of its scope, ambition and message. That cast -- which, along with aforementioned thesps, includes Walter Matthau in a substantial part and Cloris Leachman in a tiny one -- and Columbia's aggressive marketing campaign almost guarantee a strong
opening weekend, though mixed-to-negative reviews and lukewarm word of mouth should result in moderate box office that will not fulfill expectations.
In all of her films, whether pics based on original scripts (``Sleepless in Seattle''), remakes of French farces (``Mixed Nuts''), derivative imitations of yesteryear's chestnuts (``You've Got Mail'') or Capraesque tributes (``Michael''), Ephron has basically made the same kind of harmless, innocuous entertainment -- star-driven, predictably soft and undemanding of its viewers. It's too bad that the talented and charming Ryan has become the quintessential Ephron heroine for, as she has proven in other
pictures, her range is far wider than what she's asked to display in a typical Ephron confection.
Pic's poster and ad campaign, which try to cash in on the far superior and wittier ``The First Wives Club'' (which also starred Keaton), are deceptive, for they suggest that the trio of women play leading, co-starring roles. In actuality, Ryan is the sole protagonist, Eve -- the middle sister who's still flooded with memories of being Daddy's girl but now has matured into a responsible woman who, unlike her self-absorbed siblings, is committed to her father's welfare.
First act is irritatingly dominated by endless phone conversations among the sisters -- the cell phone is one of the few icons that gives this sentimental pic a contemporary feel. As story begins, Eve takes her irascible, patriarchal father, Lou (Matthau), to the hospital for a series of tests related to his confusion and disorientation. It turns out that Daddy's real problem is his failure to acknowledge that his wife, Pat (Leachman), has left him. Earlier, under pressure from her father, Eve visits
her mom, now residing in Big Bear. In what's one of the film's feeblest scenes, Leachman gets to deliver an embarrassingly ``feminist'' speech about how she was never meant to be a mother.
Back home, Eve enjoys a loving marriage with her infinitely patient husband, Joe (Adam Arkin), and good rapport with her sensitive boy, Jesse (Jesse James). A car accident in a parking lot, caused by -- what else -- careless talk on her cell, introduces Eve to Omar (Duke Moosekian), who later shows up as a doctor where Lou is hospitalized, and to his Iranian mother, Ogmed (Ann Bortolotti). In a tearful scene, Ogmed delivers pic's central message: Sometimes, it's important to disconnect from parents.
Eve's sisters are narrowly defined and one-dimensional. Georgia (Keaton), the eldest and most elegant, vies for a spot on the power list as editor in chief of her self-titled women's magazine. Youngest sis, Maddy (Kudrow), the most spontaneous and least mature, is a woman who solemnly declares one day that her life's vocation is acting, and five years later, after a disappointing career as a soap actress, just as solemnly announces that she is quitting acting. Whether consciously or not, Maddy's part
recalls Dianne Wiest's role in ``Hannah and Her Sisters,'' also about three sisters during the holiday season.
Story is framed by two flashbacks. In the first, set in Christmas 1988, the sisters are shocked to find their father in bed with an old acquaintance, though sequence changes tone when he confesses that he's unable to live without their mother. The second, in Halloween 1993, relates a bad incident, when Dad's offensive conduct interrupts Jesse's birthday party, scaring the kids away and causing friction between Eve and her hubby, who vows never again to let Lou in their house.
Watching this mushy melodrama, which contains occasional shards of humor (but no wit or subtlety), encourages viewers to remember its stars' better vehicles. Ryan, who could have played this role in her sleep, gets to deliver some foul lines and four-letter words that recall her famous scene in the far superior ``When Harry Met Sally ...'' Matthau recycles elements of his roles in ``The Odd Couple'' and the ``Grumpy Old Men'' movies. Theatrical entrances by Keaton, who still sports one of Hollywood's
shapeliest pair of legs, bring back fond memories of similar passages in ``Baby Boom'' and other comedies. In the least developed part, Kudrow delivers one-liners in a manner that exhibits her delicious comic timing, shown to much better advantage in ``The Opposite of Sex''
Keaton, who made the equally schmaltzy but more deftly observed melodrama ``Unstrung Heroes,'' is an efficient helmer, here overseeing a glossy, easy-to-digest, entertaining package with good production values across the board, particularly Bobbie Read's alluring costumes, which display the stars at their most glamorous.
Choices of music, like production's other aspects, are obvious: The Christmas sequence is introduced with Judy Garland's emotional rendition of ``Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas'' from ``Meet Me in St. Louis,'' Keaton's sequences as mag editor are punctuated by ``Georgia on My Mind,'' and so on.
``Hanging Up'' celebrates forgiveness and family love, concluding on a fake, farcical note with a sisterly Thanksgiving reunion. Indeed, commercial prospects for the picture, which was originally skedded for Christmas 1999 release, will further suffer from its push back to late winter.
Eve .................. Meg Ryan
Georgia .............. Diane Keaton
Maddy ................ Lisa Kudrow
Lou .................. Walter Matthau
Joe .................. Adam Arkin
Omar Kunundar ........ Duke Moosekian
Ogmed Kunundar ....... Ann Bortolotti
Pat .................. Cloris Leachman
Angie ................ Maree Cheatham
Dr. Kelly ............ Myndy Crist
Jesse ................ Jesse James
A Sony Pictures Entertainment release of a Columbia Pictures presentation of a Nora Ephron and Laurence Mark production. Produced by Mark, Ephron. Executive producers, Delia Ephron, Bill Robinson. Co-producer, Diana Pockorny.
Directed by Diane Keaton. Screenplay, Delia Ephron, Nora Ephron, based on the book by Delia Ephron. Camera (Deluxe color), Howard Atherton; editor, Julie Monroe; music, David Hirschfelder; production designer, Waldemar Kalinowski; art director, Troy Sizemore; set designer, Mick Cukurs; set decorator, Florence Fellman; costume designer, Bobbie Read; sound (Dolby/SDDS/DTS), Charles M. Wilborn; supervising sound editor, Michael Wilhoit; assistant director, K.C. Colwell; casting, Lisa Beach. Reviewed at the
Century Plaza, L.A., Feb. 9, 2000.
Reuters/Variety
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