Hanging Up (2000)

A trio of sisters bond over their ambivalence toward the approaching death of their curmudgeonly father, to whom none of them was particularly close.

Director:

Diane Keaton

Writers:

Delia Ephron (book), Delia Ephron (screenplay),

Stars:

Meg Ryan, Diane Keaton, Lisa Kudrow

2 wins.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Meg Ryan	...	Eve Mozell Marks
Diane Keaton	...	Georgia Mozell
Lisa Kudrow	...	Maddy Mozell
Walter Matthau	...	Lou Mozell
Adam Arkin	...	Joe Marks
Shaun Duke	...	Dr. Omar Kunundar (as Duke Moosekian)
Ann Bortolotti	...	Ogmed Kunundar
Cloris Leachman	...	Pat Mozell
Maree Cheatham	...	Angie
Myndy Crist	...	Dr. Kelly
Libby Hudson	...	Libby
Jesse James	...	Jesse Marks
Edie McClurg	...	Esther
Tracee Ellis Ross	...	Kim
Celia Weston	...	Madge Turner

Storyline

Georgia Mozell, Eve Marks and Maddy Mozell are adult sisters. Georgia is the editor of her own wildly successful self-titled women's magazine. She strives for publicity at any cost. Party planner Eve is the mother hen of the group, not only of her own family, but also of her siblings and father as their mother, Pat, not only emotionally left their father when they divorced, but her daughters as well. And Maddy is a vacuous soap opera actress who has always struggled for her own identity. Despite being as busy with her own life as the others, Eve is the only one of the three who deals with the long term hospitalization of their cantankerous seventy-nine year old father, Lou Mozell, when he enters the early stages of dementia, and the associated outcomes of that hospitalization. Eve's caring for Lou is despite an especially hurtful incident with him seven years earlier. As the emotional aspect of looking after Lou becomes more and more stressful, Eve has to figure out how to maintain ...

---

Plot Keywords:

party planner | magazine | actress | soap opera actress | greeting with a kiss | 

---

Taglines:

Every family has a few hang-ups.

---

Genres:

Comedy | Drama

---

Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for language and some sex-related material

Details

Country:

USA Germany

Language:

English

Release Date:

18 February 2000 (USA)

Also Known As:

No nos dejes colgadas

Filming Locations:

1261 Angelo Drive, Beverly Hills, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$60,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

£194,112 (UK) (12 May 2000)

Gross:

$36,037,909 (USA) (26 May 2000)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Columbia Pictures Corporation, Global Entertainment Productions GmbH & Company Medien KG, Laurence Mark Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

94 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Walter Matthau's final role. In very poor health throughout filming, he was diagnosed with colon cancer for the second time in his life in November 1999 shortly after filming ended. He died over seven months later, four months after the film's release.

---

Goofs

Eve's cracked driver window is fixed when viewed from outside.

---

Quotes

Lou Mozell: You know, that I actually met a girl by the name of Moo Goo Gai Pan? That was her last name. Her first name was Freida. Freida Moo Goo Gai Pan. She was half-Jewish, half-Chinese. A lot of people called her the Ori-Yenta.

---

Connections

References Die Hard (1988)

---

Soundtracks

"Happy Birthday To You"
Written by Mildred J. Hill and Patty S. Hill

User Reviews

wildly uneven comedy/drama

The late Walter Matthau ended his long and illustrious career as a film actor in `Hanging Up,' playing, appropriately, the dying father of three adult daughters. I wish I could say that the vehicle he chose as his eventual swan song were one truly worthy of his enormous skill and talent. Unfortunately – or rather fortunately – however, this will not be the film for which he is most remembered.

Like so many films, `Hanging Up' starts off with the most noble of intentions. Writer Delia Ephron and director Diane Keaton have attempted to come to terms with the most complex issue facing the aging baby boomer generation: how does one cope with ailing, aging and dying parents while trying to keep a grip on one's own hectic life and personal commitments? And, to make matters more complicated, how does one expend the physical and emotional energy needed for such a task when the parent himself is often irascible, crusty and even downright unlikable in his behavior and nature? And, finally, how does a wounded child ultimately find it in his or her heart to forgive the parent and arrive at that moment of reconciliation so crucial when death finally comes?

When `Hanging Up' focuses on this theme, it achieves moments of point and relevance. All of us can identify with the main character, Eve (Meg Ryan), a sweet, warmhearted young woman who, alone of the three daughters, has unflaggingly dedicated herself to the care of a father who, more often than not, strikes out at her in unappreciative scorn and anger. Wearied and harassed by the enormous burdens of her hectic life and her own inability to say `no' to the people who demand so much from her, Eve emerges as a truly winning and believable character. Unfortunately, her two sisters, Georgia (Diane Keaton), a magazine magnate, and Maddy (Lisa Kudrow), a soap opera actress, come across as shallow, two-dimensional characters whose self-absorption and seeming indifference are (ho hum) really masks for the insecurity and hurt hidden deep beneath their composed surfaces.

Somehow, however, for all its attempts to deal with a truly universal theme, `Hanging Up' never seems quite real in its look and demeanor – it always feels like a movie. Maybe it is the overall slickness of the approach that undermines the seriousness of the drama. The actresses, good though they are, seem somehow too glamorous, their careers too unrepresentative of most of the people in the audience. Another problem is that the film can never seem to settle on an appropriate tone. One moment we find ourselves steeped in searing drama followed the next by a scene of trivial slapstick. Time and again, Ryan is forced to trip over a discarded toy, tangle with an overgrown mutt or bang away at an uncooperative coffee dispenser. Such incidents end up reducing the level of the drama to little more than sitcom status.

`Hanging Up' has, however, been blessed with a wonderful cast. Ryan, Keaton, Kudrow and Matthau pore on the charm and play off each other nicely. (And the film has some devilish fun playing up the physical similarities between Matthau and Richard Nixon). These fine performers obviously had a terrific time making the film together. That is why one regrets the fact, that for all their hard work, the film they left behind is so lacking in credibility and grit. At the end of his career and life, Matthau deserved better.