Hannah and Her Sisters

Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) Probably when all is said and done, my favorite Allen movie. This is definitely one of those examples where the sum is greater than the parts. Great shots of New York (specifically the city's architecture), great situations, great parties and great music

Among the Manhattan-dwelling characters is Michael Caine, who is married to Hannah (Mia Farrow) but lusts after her sister (Barbara Hershey) who lives with a tormented artist (Max Von Sydow.) Hannah's ex-husband (Woody Allen) starts dating her other sister (Diane Weist) who wants to date Sam Waterston, even though he'd rather date her friend (Carrie Fisher).

In addition to the cameo by Julia Louise Dreyfuss, the film features two supporting performances by old school actors, Lloyd Nolan and Mia Farrow's real life mom, the original Jane in the Tarzan movies, Maureen O'Sullivan.

If that's not enough, Allen throws in plenty of his trademark hypochondria hysteria, questioning the meaning of the universe and whether God exists.

I 'd say it was because it's one of the most joyous, life-affirming films I've ever seen. It just makes me feel so good.

All the characters are engaging and funny. Woody is hilarious as the neurotic hypochondriac television producer who gets the idea he's got a brain tumor, and is almost as upset when he finds out he doesn't have one as he'd be if he did (have a brain tumor, that is.) He realizes that even if he is not going to die in the near future, he is going to die sometime, as are we all. He becomes obsessed with this idea, that death waits for us all, and if there's no God, no afterlife, what's the point of it all? So he embarks upon a quest to find Religion, a religion, any religion, that will satisfy him that there's something beyond human mortality.

Of course there's no answer to this, but Woody's desperate odyssey to find some meaning to a life that inevitably ends in death, some kind of certainty, is both something we can all relate to (maybe without the desperation) and extremely funny.

We don't find out till nearly the end of the movie how he resolves this. But there's no magic answer, no guru telling him some cosmic secret. Woody's epiphany is much more simple than that; it's that he discovers that life is sweet, and even if we only go around once and it all comes to an end, let's savor it while we're here. There's so much to savor. I can't express this the way Woody's character does in the film, it's best if you just watch the movie and vicariously experience his joy in this revelation.

There are lots of other delights in this film to enjoy along the way. All the actors are first-rate. Max von Sydow is especially moving as the rejected lover of Lee, one of the three sisters the movie follows over a period of two years. Lee is charmingly played by Barbara Hershey, while Mia Farrow as the "settled" sister, captures the two sides of Hannah, as someone who's both almost annoyingly perfect (at least as perceived by others) yet is actually as needy and vulnerable as everyone else.

But the most engaging character in Hannah and Her Sisters has got to be Holly, the quirky "off-beat" slightly edgy sister. Dianne Wiest won a well-deserved Oscar for this role. She makes Holly funny, touching, and sympathetic.

This is what I would call a perfect film. This was my first Woody Allen experience and I have been shamelessly hooked ever since! I have probably seen it about 20x's and I always love it!! It has it all; it's hysterically funny at times (the hypochodriac), it's incredibly painful(afternoons) at others and the blending of the characters paths(lucky I ran into you) is just beautiful. I watch this movie every couple of months when I need a little cheering up and it always works. Highly recommended.

Arguably Woody Allen's best production with the exception of "Annie Hall". The film follows three sisters (Mia Farrow, Barbara Hershey and Oscar-winner Dianne Wiest) through their careers and their relationships. Farrow is the backbone that keeps everything together. However, husband Michael Caine (Oscar-winning) has his eye of Hershey and something might come of his crush. Max Von Sydow is seeing Hershey, but he may not be enough to curve her lust. Wiest seems to be the odd one out as she struggles with everything, thinking of herself as second-rate to sister Farrow. You know she might fit in well with Farrow's ex-husband (the priceless Allen). A wild film of vivid characters that entertains to the paramount. Allen received an Oscar for his screenplay and was nominated yet again for his dead-on direction. Not a perfect film, but Allen's amazing story-telling and his superb creation of memorable characters and sequences make "Hannah and Her Sisters" one of the better films of the 1980s. 4.5 out of 5 stars.

While I am a Woody Allen fanatic, I'm not sure if I agree with the minority of Woody fans who claim this is his best film, instead of "Annie Hall". Sure, I would be quick to elect "Annie" as Woody's best, but then I regard "Manhattan", "Stardust Memories", "Crimes & Misdemeanors", as well as "Hannah And Her Sisters", and I become unsure. This is certainly one of Woody's most mature films, and I would freely place it in my top five of Woody's works. It nicely balances comedy with drama, and it also began a new era of high accomplishment for Woody. Functioning as an ensemble drama loosely organized around three sisters, "Hannah" chronicles several stories at once. The film has an incredibly warm, intimate feeling about it, as people talk in their earth-toned apartments over J.S. Bach or stroll through the city's crisp autumn air. What rings most true about this film is that it doesn't end quite the way you thought it would (the words "too tidy" and "unpunished" get unfairly used a lot), yet it ends as it should.

Ironically, Hannah (played by Mia Farrow) doesn't fare too deeply in the film. The eldest of three, she's the family matriarch soothing her aging parents, a showbiz couple reluctantly settling into old age and blaming each other for it. Her husband Elliot (Michael Caine expertly stuttering & flushing) is consumed with guilt over his heavy crush on Hannah's sensuous, down-to-earth sister, Lee. Lee is slowly pulling away from her failing relationship with Frederick (the always excellent Max Von Sydow), a horribly misanthropic curmudgeon whose reliance on her as his last link to humanity becomes suffocating. The youngest sister, Holly (Dianne Wiest - kicking ass as usual), is a nervous, impatient actress whose insecurity and lack of success lead to competing with her best friend April over work and men. Meanwhile, Hannah's ex-husband Mickey (Woody), a severe hypochondriac, is trying desperately to accept his eventual mortality and still find some meaning in life, which it what it seems all the other characters are trying to do. I won't say where the stories are going or where they all end up, but I will say the ensemble cast is all-around great, Michael Caine and Dianne Wiest are definitely the stand-outs here (their Oscars were well-deserved), but Max Von Sydow and Barbara Hershey do quite fine as well. As for Woody - Mickey is the kind of character that fans were probably waiting for him to play for years, and he pulls it off with his classic ticks & twitches.

Woody's evident genius is shown here by juggling the separate stories back & forth so fluidly. Most attention seems to be focused on Elliot and Lee during the first half (both conflicted & confused), while the second half slightly centers around Mickey and Holly (both nervous & unsure). Mickey operates mostly as an outsider and the strength of his story doesn't pertain too much to "the sisters" (although there are two hysterical flashbacks sequences, one involving Hannah and the other detailing a disastrous date with Holly). Another masterstroke on Woody's part are the internal voice-overs. Woody is too smart to know that there are certain thoughts a person has that will exist only in their head, and extracting these feelings into some kind of dialogue with another person would seem forced. It's casual pacing, novelistic endeavors, vivid characters, cozy settings, heartfelt music and sharp, candid dialogue are what makes this film hold up beautifully for me after dozens of viewings. It's an absolute Woody Allen film.