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Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)

A review by Damian Cannon.
Copyright © Movie Reviews UK 1997
Woody Allen once again returns to familiar territory, namely New York, and constant themes, life and relationships, yet still imbues the result with freshness, wit, intelligence and perception. With episodes that occur chronologically, through the years we get to know Hannah (Mia Farrow) and her extended, fractious family. Hannah has made the decision to devote her time to her children, which isn't too difficult since her husband Elliot (Michael Caine) is a successful financial advisor. Lately though Hannah has made a triumphant comeback onto the stage, following in her patents footsteps, just to see if she could. This rampant success tends to rankle with her sisters, Holly (Diane Wiest) and Lee (Barbara Hershey), since they are far from this goal. Lee is tied to Frederick (Max von Sydow), an artist so caught up in his own world that he can't relate to anyone else (he can hardly reach Lee either). Holly is a neurotic, a failed drug-addict and wannabe actress, who drifts between each crisis.

From the first scene, a Thanksgiving party hosted by Hannah and Elliot, a jigsaw of relationships is pieced together before our eyes. The hosts appear to be happily in love (and indeed they are, deep down) but Elliot comes over all dizzy whenever Lee comes near - one whiff of her perfume and the dogs of lust are straining at the leash. She is happy enough with Frederick, taking assorted college courses and posing for paintings, but there is a small crack for Elliot to exploit (perhaps she'd like the risk or maybe she needs more than Frederick can give). Whichever, Elliot suddenly finds himself with everything that he'd dreamed of only to find that it all turns to sand and trickles through his fingers.

In parallel vignettes Holly is struggling with her cocaine addiction (echoing her mothers (Maureen O'Sullivan) love/hate relationship with the bottle) and tapping Hannah for "loans", supposedly required for yet another bright business idea. Symptomatic of her failure to deal with anything is Holly's date with Mickey (Woody Allen), ex-husband of Hannah and a stressed-out TV executive. Their tastes are so diametrically opposed, particularly in music, that they seem to have no common ground and part venomously. This seems a bit strange though since Mickey is equally an underdog, fighting for breath in the cut-throat TV industry and labouring under all-consuming hypochondria. He drifts along to see Hannah and their children (not biologically!) from time to time but it all seems a bit without purpose, even if it does keep up the father-child bonds.

As the two-year period of the story passes there are surprises, disappointments and changes in store for all but Allen does a grand job of tangling everyone's lives together. The dialogue is as sharp as ever but this time the laughter isn't so forced and the maudlin aspects are almost wholly missing, making this one of Allen's best ever scripts. In combination with excellent and natural acting the characters come alive, to the extent that we can fill in the scenes which are not shown and feel for their best efforts. However, the ending is unusually upbeat for Allen (apparently more so than he actually wanted) and grates a little with the preceding story, not fatally though.

In many ways Hannah and Her Sisters is a movie of individual moments, which is reinforced by the overall structure of the story, e.g. before each part there is a title or quotation (in white on black) which has some relevance to that which follows. These act to both break up the story and impose an external structure, tying everyone together with something which is greater than the familial grouping at the core. The way in which Allen manages this complexity (effortlessly) is a testament to his skill, with the side effect that the movie is a lot of fun (even though it isn't a comedy). A film to treasure.

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