Meg Ryan, Walter Matthau and Lisa Kudrow in "Hanging Up."

MOVIE INFORMATION

With 10 as a must-see, Jack gives this film a: Stars: Meg Ryan, Walter Matthau and Diane Keaton Director: Diane Keaton Rated: PG-13, with profanity and sexual references Length: 93 minutes

ROCHESTERCRITIQUE

Having seen this film, how would you rate it? 10 5 9 4 8 3 7 2 6 1

By Jack Garner
Democrat and Chronicle

(Feb. 18, 2000) -- Hanging Up, the new comedy from producer Nora Ephron and director Diane Keaton, offers the cinematic equivalent of fingernails on a blackboard.

Despite a valiant effort from its star Meg Ryan, Hanging Up is jittery and irritable and nearly all its characters whine, whine, whine.

The film's advertising campaign emphasizes the classy presence of Ryan, Keaton (as actor as well as director) and Lisa Kudrow, who play three stylish sisters. But in truth, Ryan holds center stage.

In fact, that's the point. Ryan is Eve, the take-charge sister who has grown tired of handling the family's problems, which mostly involve their cranky, old father (Walter Matthau). He's a shameless, recalcitrant butt-grabber who's become increasingly disabled and forgetful and in need of constant care.

Eve spends the whole first half of the film on cell phones, trying to inspire her self-absorbed sisters to help her deal with Dad. But older sister Georgia (Keaton) is too busy editing a big-time fashion magazine and flighty younger sister Maddy (Kudrow) is obsessed with her would-be acting career on a soap opera.

That leaves Eve to run hither and yon, helping her club organize a big luncheon, dealing with Dad at the nursing home and even getting herself in a fender-bender car crash (because she's distracted by the cell phone, of course).

Though Meg Ryan has sparkled in other Ephron works -- like Sleepless in Seattle and You've Got Mail -- she fights an uphill battle to make us like this character. Eve is in a constant state of hurly-burly. Her relentless complaining wears thin, and we start to notice Ryan's repeated gestures, like the way she throws back her hair.

I also wondered why Eve's loving husband (Adam Arkin) disappears from the movie after a few early scenes and is never called upon to help his beleaguered wife. In their rush to examine the relationship among the sisters, Ephron and Keaton ignore him.

Even the usually wonderful Matthau comes up short. This particular "grumpy old man" lacks humor and heart.

Hanging Up has been adapted from a first novel by Nora Ephron's sister, Delia. Both sisters co-wrote the screenplay. The result, though, seems contrived and forced, a relationship-of-the-week TV movie.

Everyone involved, on both sides of the camera, has done better.