Simply A Masterpiece

Good movie but grossly overrated

Best movie of this year hands down!

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

This film should have been a lot better. It remains watchable but some parts are painful. I found Diane Keaton and Lisa Kudrow's characters completely shallow and annoying. In fact, they almost gave me a headache. Actually every character in the film is a stereotype. Luckily, Meg Ryan is decent and holds the film together. Walter Matthau is alright as the crotchety dad. Some of his scenes are more drama than comedy and could have been toned down. The film is watchable but definitely not worth a trip to the theater. See it if you are bored with nothing else to do.Overall 4/10

OK, by not necessary I mean, this movie should not have been made.When I went to watch "Hanging Up" I was sick, and was thinking 'OK, I just feel like watching a stupid chick flick, whatever.' But, when I was done watching I asked my self why I didn't eject it 20 minutes in. This movie wasn't really chick-flickish the way I expected but, it also was even worse than I expected. This movie contains no likable characters. The only character who was semi-likable was Meg Ryan's. Every character is extremely annoying, and just when you think they aren't they get worse! The premise of the movie it's self is stupid. Everybody's heard the story before! Plus, how could they expect Diane Keaton being Meg Ryan's sister would work? I mean, she's more than 15 years older than her. Every character makes themselves less and less likable. The mother plain out says she hates being a mother and only had children as if it were some sort of fad. Sister, Georgia, is self consumed and takes credit for her sister's work. Other sister, Maddy, convinces herself that she cares about things when she really doesn't. The son seems likable, but then bludgeons you over the head with annoying laughter. The husband is pretentious and controlling. Overall, this movie goes nowhere. Who's idea was this to make it? I mean obviously the writer of the novel. Why would you write a book, and then decide to write a screenplay for the movie? Did she think the book didn't do it justice and thought there should be a movie? Plus, Diane Keaton directed it? Since she when can she direct? I mean, she is a good actress, but why did she direct this?Anyways, to the point. So, unless you enjoy movies with stupid plots and irritating characters don't watch this movie.

i thought this movie was an amazing drama. it expressed what it's like to deal with the struggles of everyday life and also other difficult obstacles. this movie was one of the ONLY movies i have ever seen to truly express relationships between sisters. i loved it. i also thought it was creative because it wasn't OVERLY dramatic to the point where you lose touch with the reality of the situation. it just seemed like real sisters, with a real father, living real lives and i love that. i think the cast was amazing and they made some of the situations comical, but they didn't throw it in your face. this movie made me think, it made me cry, and it made me appreciate my sisters. i loved it.

HANGING UP (2000) *1/2 Meg Ryan, Diane Keaton, Lisa Kudrow, Walter Matthau, Adam Arkin, Cloris Leachman, Jesse James, Edie McClurg.When did Nora Ephron lose her razor sharp comic bile and effervescent wit? I'd be hard pressed to guess at her debacle at directing the laugh free `Mixed Nuts' that made her directing debut practically inauspicious. Since then she has rehashed `When Harry Met Sally.' (one of my all time favorite comedies) AND `Sleepless In Seattle' (with 1998's `You've Got Mail' which was a rehash of `The Shop Around The Corner') and I've also noticed her comedy flair has gotten a nasty streak of meanness throughout. Her latest offering is a joint effort with her sister Delia (based on her autobiographical account of their colorful screenwriter father) that quite frankly is a mirthless, `dramedy' (a term I never wholeheartedly embraced; sounds freakish don't you think?) about three sisters approaching middle age and enough dysfunction for several sitcoms to trudge through.Eve, Georgia and Maddy (Ryan, Keaton - who directed this mess, and Kudrow, respectively) are the squabbling sisters who all seem attached by some sort of metaphorical umbilical cord (i.e. the phone) who are at constant odds with each other and themselves in midst of a family crisis: their randy, colorful alcoholic screenwriter father Lou (the film's saving grace Matthau, who gives a heartfelt turn in a too-true-to-life interpretation of a life fully lived) whose mental decline is only preceded by his physical one: he's slowly dying.But it seems that Eve, a professional party planner married with a son, is the only one who recognizes this in spite of her hectic pell mell existence and clumsiness (i.e. accident prone to a fault) she does the only reasonable alternative: she puts their dad in the hospital after an attempt in a nursing home that only offered disastrous results.Georgia is a power hungry magazine magnate busy putting her self-congratulatory 5th anniversary edition of her eponymous zine to bed while her ditzy younger sis Maddy is trying to maintain a role on a soap opera with middling results.The film suffers many things, largely a decent script with a peppering of listless one-liners that fall flat or the hackneyed long-in-the-tooth premise of a dying loved one's pleas for his children to love one another (a noble theme true but here it feels like pulling teeth with no ether!) The other sin in the golden rule of comedy is there is nothing likable about the `realistic' account of one family's attempt to deal with a crisis. All three sisters are sooo annoying and whining and ultimately uncaring that when they finally get together by the film's inevitable climax it feels contrived and completely unconvincing. Why should we care about any of these characters in the first place? They're all too wrapped up in their ME ME way of life that it's actually repulsive.Matthau, with his basset hound's face in the comedy visage of Mount Rushmore, delivers a fine professional turn and I hate to say this but the fact he has been facing some hard times with his health only adds another layer to his role that raises the film a half star just for his casting.There are so many unanswered questions I hope the three other stars may consider on their next feature film. For Ryan - who I absolutely adore except here she is given the thankless task of being the glue here - When are you going to do a comedy with your meant-to-be older sister/mother Goldie Hawn, who she seems to be channeling obviously in her one-too-many scenes with a behemoth St. Bernard (shades of `Seems Like Old Times'); for Keaton - who will forever be Annie Hall to me - When did you stop being funny? Perhaps the second `Father of the Bride' flick? And finally to Kudrow - who's always solidly funny - When oh when are you going to stretch again and do another character (i.e. `The Opposite of Sex' in which she was deliciously snippy) and not another variation of your classic airhead Phoebe from `Friends'? These unsolved mysteries are now at Robert Stack's disposal.