"It's likely our father will never die," Georgia, Diane Keaton's character in the film Hanging Up, says best. As they groan their way through this 92-minute tale about three sisters and their frail, senile father, audiences will empathize. It should come as no surprise that Lou (Walter Matthau) dies just before the credits roll; it is to be predicted. Unfortunately, what passes the time is no more exciting than those annoying phone salesmen who call at all hours of the day and night.
Eve (Meg Ryan), Georgia (Lisa Kudrow), and Maddy (Meg Ryan) are three sisters who are divided by career but connected by AT&T. Georgia is the affluent publisher of her magazine. Maddy is a semi-celebrity soap star, and Eve is a frazzled housewife/mother struggling to make it in the corporate world with her party planning venture, "No Surprises."
When Lou's health deteriorates and death approaches, Eve sees herself as the primary caregiver, as she is the only one able to devote time to her father. She exclaims, "he's gone," as the phones ring all night, only to be proved mistaken. What happened to this divorced father's other two children? On the set as well as in the meeting room.
Even though Keaton directed it, Meg Ryan is the star of Hanging Up. But for their star status, Kudrow and Keaton will only be considered extras for the first 80 minutes of the film. They are famous by the end, but the film is still mainly about Meg Ryan as an actress and Walter Matthau as a supporting actor (who does very well in a role much akin to that of Jason Robards in Magnolia). Furthermore, I'm not sure Kudrow and Keaton's roles count as acting; they seem a little too at ease playing spoiled, self-centred blonde women.
When making a film with an apparent death as the climax, it is customary to have a secondary storyline to keep the viewer interested. Delia Ephron, whose debut novel serves as the film's premise as the death of Lou, is the only saga here. Unfortunately, the movie ends up being no more entertaining than the resulting massive phone bill.
