資料來源film.com
Gentle Neurotics
by Robert Horton
If you think the ads for Hanging Up suggest another
female-bonding ensemble piece along the lines of The
First Wives Club, forget it. Despite the images of
sisterhood, and the top-heavy casting of Meg Ryan,
Diane Keaton, and Lisa Kudrow, this is basically a
movie about one neurotic woman and her neurotic L.A.
life. Ryan is at center stage for this one, as an
event planner who must juggle the traumas of her job
and family with the reality of her father (Walter
Matthau), who is slowly declining. Of course, she's
the middle sister.
The other two siblings are not so dependable: Keaton
plays a glamorous New York magazine editor, Kudrow a
flighty soap opera actress. Much of the communication
amongst these sisters takes place over the phone,
which is the movie's main running image -- someone
barking into a cell phone. If you are one of those
people who really likes the telephone, and you find
the ubiquity of cell phones a fascinating phenomenon,
perhaps this idea will interest you. I am not one of
those people, so I may be seeing this movie through
prejudiced eyes.
It's based on a novel by Delia Ephron, who wrote the
screenplay with sister Nora (whose work, from When
Harry Met Sally? to You've Got Mail, has kept Meg Ryan
in the winner's circle over the last decade). Aside
from the chick-flick material and the occasional saucy
one-liner, which we expect from the Ephron sisters,
Hanging Up tries to explore the uncomfortable subject
of what a child does when an elderly parent begins to
disconnect -- from life or sanity, or both. Mostly
this is awkwardly handled, although there is one
intriguing scene that tackles the virtually taboo
topic of a mother who doesn't feel any enthusiasm for
motherhood, a scene that crackles largely because of
the unsentimental performance of Cloris Leachman.
Diane Keaton directed Hanging Up, but it is hard to
detect any special Keatonesque touches. The funniest
running gag is that Ryan is staging an event at the
Richard Nixon Library, which leads to some amusing
jokes in that august institution. The movie has that
safe, bland look of every other movie like this, the
sun-washed surfaces of a world where everybody's rich
and everybody's gently neurotic. Keaton and Kudrow
don't have much of a chance to perform their
specialties-funny, you'd think director Keaton would
bring out even more of the Annie Hall in Kudrow. Meg
Ryan looks desperate for someone to play against,
since most of her scenes are on the phone, opposite
sleepy husband Adam Arkin, or with her out-to-lunch
father.
Maybe this is enough to satisfy Ephron fans, but it
rarely comes to life. As a portrait of the mid-life
difficulties of a certain class of Los Angeles women,
maybe it is accurate, with the fancy fundraising
lunches and SUVs and Martha Stewart children's
parties. But who wants to see that?
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