I had never heard of the film ‘Hannah and her Sisters’, but spotted it at a church sale. The blurb sounded interesting, and the cast list impressive, so I forked out fifty cents. It sat on the shelf for a while, but we decided to watch it last night.
Mia Farrow is superb as Hannah, a successful wife and mother who seems to be the peacemaker and found of knowledge in her dysfunctional family. Except that we know, from the opening scenes, that her husband Elliot (Michael Caine) is secretly lusting after Hannah’s sister Lee (Barbara Hershey).
Lee lives with a rather bizarre hermit-like artist called Frederick (Max von Sydow); it appears that she was once his student, and he still likes to teach her. But she’s finding his refusal to leave the house increasingly irritating, which leaves her open to looking for romance elsewhere…
The third sister is Holly (Dianne Wiest), who is an unreliable and manipulative addict, who never feels good enough for anyone. Hannah had tried to set her up with her first husband Mickey (Woody Allen) and there’s quite an amusing scene involving a totally disastrous evening they spent together. Holly keeps trying to do something constructive, but when she writes a novel it proves to be the catalyst for Hannah to start questioning many things.
This film is considered one of Woody Allen's finest, although his role is not the starring one. Most of the humour involves his hypochondria, and search for some form of religious certainty.
The story is primarily character-based; each character changes in subtle ways. The story runs over the course of a year, from one Thanksgiving (hosted, of course, by Hannah) to the next. The various subplots unfold alongside each other, and there’s a growing awareness that Hannah isn’t quite as secure and confident as she appears. Nobody ever asks her what she likes or wants. And she seems so self-reliant that some of her loved ones find her rather stressful to be around.
The film was made in 1986, and feels more dated than that; perhaps it was intentionally so. We found it quite engrossing; the characters all feel believable, and there’s a good mixture of light-heartedness and poignancy. It's rated 15 in the UK, PG-13 in the US. Nowadays I suspect it would be just 12 in the UK, as there's no violence, and only the mildest of bad language. There are sexual references, but nothing explicit. Not that it would be of much interest to younger viewers.
‘Hannah and her Sisters’ was beautifully made, brilliantly cast. Definitely recommended if you like thirty-year-old character-based films of this genre, with a great deal more depth than more modern rom-coms.
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