Hanging Up Review

Eve (Meg Ryan) is having a hard time... She`s got a big production coming up as an event organiser, her husband`s away working, her father - Walter Matthau - a former screenwriter for John Wayne is on a downhill slide into senility and ill health and her sisters Georgia (Diane Keaton) an egomaniacal magazine owner and Maddy (Lisa Kudrow) a soap star who believes her own publicity - are just not there when she needs support - they`re barely at the end of a phone line... Water Matthau manages to maintain his dignity -just - in the midst of this shrill unfunny and ultimately tedious work. Co-written by Delia and Nora Ephron whose father Henry was the screenwriter of such fifties films as Daddy Long Legs and Desk Set, Hanging Up is a mess... they don`t seem to know what tone they`re aiming for - pathos mixed with comedy is just a guess - and they`re certainly not helped by the unevenness of Keaton`s direction. Lisa Kudrow has maybe done her dumbing-down act on screen once too often, even the usually reliable Meg Ryan seems to be floundering... as for Keaton herself, she plays Georgia like a caricature... but finally it`s the boredom that gets you... Hanging Up is a real disappointment because on paper, the talent is there... David`s comment:Very thin dramatic comedy with Meg Ryan rather good as the middle sister forced to cope with her ailing father - but the Ephrons` screenplay is thin, Diane Keaton`s direction is slipshod, and she gives a too strident performance - and it doesn`t really add up to a great deal. Crossed wires.