MOVIE COMPANY: Columbia Pictures
CAST: Starring Meg Ryan, Diane Keaton, Lisa Kudrow and Walter Matthau
DIRECTED BY: Diane Keaton
PRODUCED BY: Laurence Mark and Nora Ephron
RATING: Rated PG-13
INTERNET MOVIE DATABASE URL: http://us.imdb.com/Title?0162983
TYPE OF MOVIE: Drama, comedy
DURATION: 95 minutes
When Eve (Meg Ryan) isn’t being pulled in a million directions by her own life, she’s being sucked into lengthy phone conversations with her cranky father (Walter Matthau), or her two sisters, successful magazine entrepreneur Georgia (Diane Keaton) and career-challenged Maddy (Lisa Kudrow). As the family becomes more and more dependent on Eve, transforming her into the human switchboard that connects them all together, Eve discovers that the ties that bind can also be the ties that gag! Her revelation doesn’t sit well with her sisters, though, forcing Eve to realize that sometimes to be heard, you just have to, well, hang up!
From the novel by acclaimed writer Delia Ephron, producers Laurence Mark (Jerry Maguire) and Nora Ephron (You’ve Got Mail), and director Diane Keaton comes Hanging Up.
DVD EXTRAS:
• Region 1 encoding (US and Canada only)
• Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen, Dolby
• Theatrical trailer(s)
• Deleted sequence
• Outake Gag Reel
• Isolated Music Score
• HBO First Look: Getting Connected, the Making of Hanging Up
• Talented Files: Diane Keaton, Meg Ryan, Lisa Kudrow, Walter Matthau, Delia Ephron and Nora Ephron
• Widescreen anamorphic format
KNOWN DVD SECRET(S): None that I could find.
DVD REVIEW:
Whenever I find out that Nora and Delia Ephron’s name is connected to a movie and it stars either Meg Ryan, Tom Hanks or Billie Crystal…I’m definitely going to watch it!
I’ve always found their movies “When Harry Met Sally”, “Sleepless in Seattle” and “You’ve Got Mail” to be magical but although this one starred Meg Ryan and was definitely not a romantic love comedy, I figured that…what the heck… I’m sure it’s going to be good but is this movie more geared to women? Will I even care for it?
First, this movie is either…you love it or hate it. It is a story about three sisters and their cranky father who is getting old, tends to drink a lot and when the people you love start to lose their memory. Many people have people like this in their personal lives and can related with the three sisters. Trying to have your own life, raise a family, staying close with your family and watching over your parent. You see the character Eve (Meg Ryan) evolve.
Although I enjoyed the movie, it was short and I felt there were holes. For one, they included a deleted sequence in the movie which I felt should have not been cut. In fact, when you watch the HBO First Look on the making of “Hanging Up” which comes with the DVD, they show a lot of the sequence that was later cut in the movie. I did like the casting of the three women. Each are different in character but aren’t all siblings. Meg Ryan was very good, Lisa Kudrow was almost like her “Friends” character and Diane Keaton still has it 🙂
As for the DVD, the audio is more dialogue but you can hear the girls speak clearly. The colors are very nice and I like the use of the red, white and black colors. The color coordination with the clothes of the women and so forth. The special features are good….but where’s the commentary. You can tell the girls had so much fun…just watch the gag reel! But I wish there was a director’s commentary included with the DVD.
All in all, the movie is very touching, not as powerful compared to the other Ephron related movies but nevertheless I enjoyed it.Â
THE MOVIE:Â B-
THE DVD EXTRAS:Â B-
THE DVD OVERALL:Â B-