Hannah and Her Sisters

Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)
Director: Woody Allen
Cast: Michael Caine, Mia Farrow, Barbara Hershey, Woody Allen, Max von Sydow, Diane Wiest, Carrie Fisher
Memorable Line(s): "What if there is no God and you only go around once and that's it. Don't you want to be part of the experience? What the hell? It's not all a drag."

Hannah and Her Sisters is one movie that's hard for me to be objective about because it's my favorite Woody Allen movie and that's because it balances out Allen's penchant for being a comedian and a nihilist all wrapped into one package.

Hannah and Her Sisters is an ensemble piece with multiple sub-plots running like crossing parallel lines. Hannah (Farrow) and her husband, Elliot (Caine), are one plot avenue. Elliot is infatuated with Hannah's sister, Lee (Hershey), who happens to be married to a reclusive artist and intellectual (von Sydow). The infatuation blooms to a full born affair. Hannah, self-reliant and independent woman, is left in the dark. Hannah has another sister, Holly (Wiest), who is ship looking for a direction and going in too many mis-directions. In the picture too is Hannah's ex-husband, Mickey (Allen) who is hopeless hypochondriac facing his own existential abyss, but offers the comic relief.

Probably one of Allen's warmest movies, he takes his usual cynical bite off the movie and gives us a rosier look on the human condition. (Especially when you compare it to his Crimes and Misdemeanors.) Allen lets the actors and the dialog carry the scenes with long takes and he uses small episodic segments to break the film into discrete sections that move the movie and the characters along. Caine is wonderful as the confused and conflicted Elliot. He is the pivot of the movie, but all the characters have their own epiphanies and all the acting is first rate all the way down to the supporting cast members.

From the description above, the movie may sound like a melodrama and it is a drama, but with Allen's typical skill, there's plenty of humor in there. Allen's own character, Mickey, provides the most laughs, but we also get to see his character go through his own crisis of faith.

In the movie going world, there seems to be those that love Woody Allen movies and those that don't care for them. For those that don't think that Woody Allen movies are for them, I would recommend giving Hannah and Her Sisters a chance and for those of you who are fans but haven't seen the movie, you're in for a real treat.