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Hanging Up
*
Rated on a 4-star
scale
Screening venue: Odeon (Liverpool City Centre)
Released in the UK by Columbia TriStar on May 12, 2000; certificate 15; 95
minutes; country of origin USA; aspect ratio 1.85:1
Directed by Diane Keaton; produced by Nora
Ephron, Laurence Mark.
Written by Delia Ephron, Nora Ephron; based on the book by
Delia Ephron.
Photographed by Howard Atherton; edited by Julie
Monroe.
CAST.....
Meg Ryan..... Eve Marks
Diane Keaton..... Georgia
Lisa Kudrow..... Maddy
Walter Matthau..... Lou Mozell
Adam Arkin..... Joe
Chris Leachman..... Pat Mozell
"Hanging Up" is not the worst movie
I have ever seen, but it is the only one I can think of that made me want
to pull out a gun and start shooting at the images onscreen. It's a horrible
experience, as if somebody had discovered my pet peeves and decided to devote
a whole film to winding me up. Although I own a cellphone and am acquainted
with whiny women, they are both things I detest, and for emergencies only.
Watching them for 95 minutes is not my idea of a good time.
The film is supposed to be the story of a man's
family reacting to his descent into death. It's actually just an irritating
bunch of phone conversations between three witless sisters, who might actually
develop personalities if they cancelled their AT&T subscriptions and
lived in the real world. Meg Ryan plays Eve, the one who stays by her father's
hospital bed, deals with his eruptions of dementia, and calls up everyone
else, trying to get them to visit him. Maddy (Lisa Kudrow), the youngest
sibling, is an insecure little tramp who complains that nobody will take
her seriously; she doesn't think it odd that at age 29 she was still dreaming
of becoming a rock star, and in her mid-30s she expects she's going to be
an actress. Georgia (Diane Keaton), the eldest, is smarmy, dishonest and
lies about her personal life when it will bring her gain.
So much of "Hanging Up" takes place on the phone,
with the annoying trio barking insipid platitudes down receivers, that when
I left the cinema my ears were still ringing from clicks, beeps and dial
tones. Perhaps this movie was inevitable, such is contemporary society's
obsession with telecommunication. Delia and Nora Ephron, who wrote the
screenplay, and Diane Keaton, the director, seem to think this presentation
of people is normal, and that's rather sad.
Worse is the grating nature of the performances.
Keaton plays her detestable character with the kind of glee that shoves right
into our faces and makes us want to scream. Ryan is unconvincing, because
she uses the same disorganised comic presence as in "When Harry Met Sally"
and "Joe Versus the Volcano", and expects it to work when her character is
supposed to be a cornerstone of emotional stability. As for Lisa Kudrow,
well, she's a joke, who exudes stupidity from all of her phoney body, dead
eyes, and flat, sarcastic whimper of a voice.
You know when you're on a crowded train, and you're
wedged into the window seat when three other people need to sit in the same
booth as you? "Hanging Up" is a lot like that, as long as the three people
are vapid yuppie bitches whining and crying about their boyfriends and families
into mobile telephones that play a little tune when they ring. This is a
film that could get Gandhi's blood boiling. If it becomes your wife's favourite
video, no sane jury will convict you of domestic abuse. Of course, being
as I don't want to sound like a nut, it would be nice if you avoided quoting
me on that.
COPYRIGHT© 2000 Ian
Waldron-Mantgani
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