Hannah and Her Sisters

< Previous Trailer  |   Add to My Scrapbook  |   Next Trailer >
Hannah and Her Sisters

88% Liked It
liked it

Hannah and Her Sisters

Barbara Hershey, Carrie Fisher, Michael Caine, Mia Farrow, Dianne Wiest

Hannah regularly meets with her sisters Holly and Lee to discuss the weeks' events. It's what they don't always tell each other that forms the film's various subplots. Hannah is married to rock-star m...( read more  read more... )anager Elliot, who carries a torch for Lee, who in turn lives with pompous Soho artist Frederick. Meanwhile, Holly, a neurotic actress and eternal loser in love, dates TV producer Mickey, who used to be married to Hannah and spends most of the film convinced that he's about to die.

Id: 10904497

Do you want to see this movie?

My Friends Said...

Hannah and Her Sisters Recent Reviews

Register or sign-in to see your friends' reviews !

Recent Reviews

Hannah and Her Sisters Recent Reviews
  • ebs90
    December 25, 2009
    ebs90
    There's a *reason* why Woody Allen is a living icon of cinema. Hannah and her Sisters is not neurotically funny, like Annie Hall, but rather delicate in its humor.

    Mia Farrow, Dianne Wiest and Barbara Hershey play three beautiful children of showbusiness facing some serious rela...( read more)tionship and family issues. Michael Caine plays Hannah's (Farrow) husband, and Woody Allen plays his ex. So I won't give away the whole plot because the beauty of the movie is how it unfolds, and the 16-chapter division, with its cutesy titles. All actors give great performances and give life to very solid characters, even though the movie itself is presented in a rather scattered way. Definitely my favorite aspect is that it plays like a documentary, or a reality show, as most of Woody Allen's movies do. I absolutely love the dialogue... the flow of the conversation and the perfect -and intelligent- choice of everday words. It's nothing less than a terrific and fun movie made during Woody Allen's best hour.
  • ceWEBrity
    November 12, 2009
    ceWEBrity
    This was lovely, and I was so ready to dismiss it because it starts out just like every other fucking Woody Allen film ever, stuffed full of noxious intellectualism and older men dating pretty younger women. Watching this, however, I came to the realization that Allen is sort of ...( read more)a proto-Diablo Cody, stuffing his screenplays with self-indulgent stylistic references that can distract and grate, but that don't necessarily compromise the quality of what's going on around them. Despite the upper-class white elitism on display here, this is perhaps his most scathing deconstruction of it...although two out of three of the main offenders get what they want here, I'm willing to allow him his concessions, as with Tarantino. The man's a pervert, but he's one who understands people, if Hannah and her Sisters is any indication. His strongest writing is on display here, in a gallery of voluminous, rich characters, deepened by tiny sight gags and quiet moments instead of heavy dialogue. You walk away with detailed portraits of all three sisters and the men who love(d) them.

    I'm glad this came along when it did, because if this hadn't worked I would have just called off my attempts to like Woody Allen entirely. As it is, I still wouldn't call him a favorite, simply because his scope isn't quite what I look for in films. He operates very well in his wheel house, and never better than he does here, though it all would surely be lost without the generosity of all of his performers. Everyone is in top form here; Mia Farrow is downright heartbreaking as a woman whose self-sufficiency actually hurts the people around her; Dianne Wiest exemplifies a woman torn, the victim of pathological bad luck who tries to keep a smile on but can barely fight back the tears; Barbara Hershey has a talent for portraying guilt and longing in the same downcast glance. Michael Caine's rigid joy is almost depressing to watch, even if the character himself isn't terribly sympathetic, and Max von Sydow is surprisingly effective in a very limited role. The only person I didn't care for is - surprise! - Woody Allen. SAME FUCKING CHARACTER. Stay behind the damn camera.

    Also, are there ever any minorities in his movies, or what?
  • danperry17
    June 14, 2009
    danperry17
    An easy movie to understand for me, as I too am in love with Barbara Hershey. With two deserving Oscar-winning performances (Michael Caine and Dianne Wiest, both in supporting roles), Hannah and Her Sisters is a truly enjoyable film from a filmmaker that I find myself getting mor...( read more)e and more into with every one of his films that I see. The best part, for me, was the solliloquies that each character got, a form of narration that was not as annoying as it usually is to hear a character think... and it's funny too. Most people put this among Woody Allen's best, and I know that it will lead me to watch more of his movies to see if I agree. An enjoyable meditation on coupledom that pulls off one of my favourite movie tricks - letting one piece of music basically tell the whole story - everyone should see this film at least once.
  • hypathio7
    November 26, 2008
    hypathio7
    The dress and relationships seen a little dated in this one, but it's another Woody Allen film in which Dianne Wiest shines. I also particularly like the scene where Allen is sitting in a movie theater watching a Marx Brothers film.
  • her69eyes
    August 20, 2008
    her69eyes
    In films like "Annie Hall" and "Husbands and Wives", Woody Allen shows a great understanding for human behavior as it regards to love. In "Hannah and Her Sisters", however, he offers much more than the familiar shallow and fairly pretentious world where people are driven only by ...( read more)their sexual desires. Although a character in this film quotes a poet that says something along the lines of "love is the only true answer", which i'd imagine Allen takes to heart, this is the only film i've seen by him that really tried to examine something more. It's about love, sure, but it's also about these vibrant and completely distinctive personalities that only exist in each others world because of a family bond. In this way, I think this film is ultimately more fulfilling than Allen's classics like "Annie Hall".

    "Husbands and Wives" is a complex story centered around the relationships of three sisters and their spouses. Elliot (Michael Caine) is married to Hannah (Mia Farrow), however he's recently developed interest in her younger sister, Lee (Barbara Hershey). Hannah, on the other hand, is really the only character in the film who seems fairly grounded. Her relationship seems unhealthy and she has some selfish tendencies, but overall she seems to be the one person we can really emotionally connect to. Elliot is all over the place acting sporadically on his impulses and constantly trying to tread through his guilt of cheating on his wife with her own sister.

    The third sister, Holly, is played magnificently by Dianne Wiest. Holly is insecure, unstable, and has a past of loud punk-rock music and excessive cocaine use. She doesn't seem to have too much direction throughout the film until we see her relationship with Mickey (Woody Allen) and what went wrong, and why Mickey lets his feelings for her reemerge. This is my favorite character Woody Allen has played in what i've seen - he is essentially the same guy, but we get an interesting look at a character who is constantly troubled by his fears of death and disease. Of course, by the end of the film you expect him to realize he should be happy living life and carrying on - but, before then, he just seems more "human" than the cartoonish character Allen tends to play in a film like "Sleeper" (which essentially is a cartoon) or even "Annie Hall".

    I probably only mentioned half of the significant characters as the screen is incredibly crowded. However, Allen is able to give everyone their chance to shine with an extremely complex and well-balanced script. No one's story is any less interesting than another. Unlike a lot of other films in this style, we never get restless waiting to see what another character is up to.

    Throughout this film we essentially get "chapters" - titles on the screen that come into play around the end of that particular "segment", usually a quote. This is an interesting technique and one I really enjoyed. First of all, it gave us something to look for and a focus for the next 15 minutes or so. And second of all, it was ironic in a way that these chapters were presented as a book while the life within the story is actually really chaotic. It mirrors the characters in the film who think they have everything sorted out and are going in one direction, when life takes them somewhere entirely different. By splitting it up so meticulously, it gives you a strong impression that order cannot necessarily be achieved due to the unpredictable nature of life itself.

    This is a wonderful ensemble cast with a whole lot of standouts. My favorite's were Michael Caine and Dianne Wiest, who are strong for entirely different reasons. Elliot's character always seemed to be reasoning with himself that he was a decent guy even under the circumstances, but Caine's delivery and almost constant uncomfortable reassurance of his nature made him almost come off as a "bad guy". He didn't do anything to make us look at him any differently or flat out have to slap around his wife for us to look at him negatively. Dianne Wiest, on the other hand, is a constantly evolving and charismatic character throughout the entirety of the film. I absolutely loved the scene late in the film where her character meets Mickey in a record store.

    Having only seen "Annie Hall", "Husbands and Wives", and "Sleeper" - I will easily say that I feel this is Allen's best work. This world is more complex and unpredictable while still examining similar characters in the same environment. It doesn't seem structured - it almost comes off as a documentary in it's realism, even moreso than "Husbands and Wives", in which it literally was treated as if it were a documentary. Really insightful and satisfying stuff here.
  • j26lotr87
    November 4, 2009
    j26lotr87
    Woody Allen's character was good and I was glad to see Carrie Fisher in another role
  • ahhh1989
    October 27, 2009
    ahhh1989
    The film just moves me so much and still makes me laugh incredibly hard. The structure and the pacing are perfect! Amazing.
  • joydark82
    August 24, 2009
    joydark82
    Senza dubbio uno dei migliori film di Woody Allen, con la solita brillante sceneggiature e tante trovate registiche che sembrano omaggiare spesso il Maestro Bergman (magari la presenza di Von Sidow non è casuale). Personaggi ben studiati e dialoghi illuminanti sul senso (?) della...( read more) vita.
  • jimbotender
    August 21, 2009
    jimbotender
    I suspect Hannah is the female alter-ego of Woody Allen after all.There's a heartfelt emotion from beginning to end and all the characters gain something regardless of the low blows they might get or their selfish attitude most of the times.Wiest and O'Sullivan are the female roc...( read more)ks and Caine is the cool jazz,questions and quarrels are the main protagonists of this carousel of comedic adventures.
  • SageSlowdive
    August 13, 2009
    SageSlowdive
    Dumb and never ending.
View All Reviews

Opening This Week

Top Box Office

Upcoming Movies

New on DVD