Hannah and Her Sisters

Hannah, Holly and Lee are adult sisters from a show business family. Their boozy actress mother still believes she's an ingénue who can attract any man she wants, despite still being married to the girls' father, Evan. Hannah, on her second marriage to a man named Elliot, a financial advisor, is the success of the family. She's taking a break from her acting career to raise her children. Everyone turns to her for advice, while she never talks to others about what she needs or feels. Her first husband, Mickey, is a comedy show writer and hypochondriac. He's going through a crisis as he mistakenly believes he will die soon without a clear belief, as a non-practicing Jew, of what will happen to him in the afterlife. Single Holly is the insecure flaky sister, a struggling and thus continually unemployed actress. She's just started a catering business with her actress friend April, in order to do something constructive with her life. In her own security, Hannah even set up Holly and Mickey together following her own break-up with Mickey. Holly and Mickey's sole date was arguably the worst night in both their lives. Holly turns to Hannah for everything in her life, including money, despite feeling Hannah is overly judgmental about her failures. It's during a catering job that Holly and April meet David, an architect, who seems interested in both of them. Holly's insecurities may threaten her potential relationship with David and friendship with April. Lee, who collects unemployment, is metaphorically the family's piece of clay waiting for the right artist to mold her. She has long lived with artist Frederick, who has contempt for everyone except her, and as such relies on her for whatever his connection to the outside world. This already complex collective becomes even more complex when Elliot contemplates telling Lee that he has fallen in love with her. His attraction to her is as much feeling unneeded by Hannah, who he does not want to hurt regardless of what he decides to do with respect to Lee

*Movie information in Story Line, Details and Cast sections from IMDb and/or Amazon Movies.

Genres: Drama, Comedy

Release Date: March 14, 1986

Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) Rating: PG-13 (Parents Strongly Cautioned)

Director: Woody Allen

Studio: MGM

Review:
"Another Impressive Winner From Woody Allen." 30 July 2002 | by tfrizzell (United States) – Arguably Woody Allen's best production with the exception of "Annie Hall." The film follows three sisters (Mia Farrow, Barbara Hershey and Oscar-winner Dianne Wiest) through their careers and their relationships. Farrow is the backbone that keeps everything together. However, husband Michael Caine (Oscar-winning) has his eye on Hershey, and something might come of his crush. Max Von Sydow is seeing Hershey, but he may not be enough to curb her lust. Wiest seems to be the odd one out as she struggles with everything, thinking of herself as second-rate to sister Farrow. You know she might fit in well with Farrow's ex-husband (the priceless Allen). A wild film of vivid characters that entertains to the paramount. Allen received an Oscar for his screenplay and was nominated yet again for his dead-on direction. Not a perfect film, but Allen's amazing story-telling and his superb creation of memorable characters and sequences make Hannah and Her Sisters one of the better films of the 1980s. 4.5 out of 5 stars.

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

Supporting Actors:
Maureen O'Sullivan, Lloyd Nolan, Max von Sydow, Woody Allen, Lewis Black, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Christian Clemenson, Julie Kavner, J.T. Walsh, John Turturro, Rusty Magee, Allen DeCheser, Artie DeCheser, Ira Wheeler, Richard Jenkins