the ads make " hanging up " seem like an upbeat comedy about a rascally father and his three daughters .
anyone who went to the movie expecting that left disappointed .
all of the movie 's funny scenes were included in the ad .
so what do we get ?
eve marks ( meg ryan ) just put her father lou mozell ( walter matthau ) into a hospital .
once upon a time , lou was a hollywood screenwriter who collaborated with his now - estranged wife .
his one great moment in life was writing a film for john wayne , who gave him a giant bullet - shaped trophy .
now lou is senile and deteriorating rapidly .
eve tries to convince her sisters georgia ( diane keaton ) and maddy ( lisa kudrow ) that their father is dying and needs them .
both are slow to show concern .
so devoted eve stands vigil over her father , who constantly asks for his favorite daughter georgia , while running her own business ( planning special events ) and caring for her son ( jesse james ) .
( some comic relief comes when maddy also drops off her ailing st .
bernard for eve to care for . )
the tension builds until all three sisters are finally in one room at one of eve 's events where georgia is the keynote speaker .
there 's a superficial resemblance to shakespeare 's " king lear " ( senile king with three daughters : one devoted saint and two selfish bitches ) , but the material is apparently drawn from life .
sister screenwriters delia and nora ephron had parents who were a successful hollywood writing team .
henry and phoebe ephron collaborated on 17 screenplays , including " desk set " and
" there 's no business like show business .
"
( delia 's novel , the basis for the film , is dedicated to henry ) .
surprisingly , the script is as thin as an anorexic 's wet dream .
the virtue of a semi - autobiographical project would seem to be the wealth of material available .
yet , the ephrons provide only the barest minimum of information about their characters .
also , the spaces they inhabit seem artificial .
eve lives in a house that looks like a magazine layout ; no matter how put - upon
she is , we ca n't feel sorry for anyone whose house is so pristine on any given day .
georgia is a famous magazine editor , and in her brief scenes while she chats on a cell phone with eve seem like the photo spread for a profile .
when we first meet maddy , she 's fishing at a picturesque mountain stream .
i expected to see the credit " cinematography by ' vanity fair . '
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and , yes , diane keaton is literally old enough to be lisa kudrow 's mother .
to her credit , though , she looks young enough to pull it off .
the one redeeming aspect of " hanging up " is that , at its core , is a truth about siblings .
there 's always one on which everyone else in the family relies , freeing the others to be selfish and emotionally distant .
my wife is the reliable child in her family ; for better or worse , my brother has the role in mine .
( being selfish and emotionally distant may not be fulfilling , but it is a lot less work ) . if you have nothing better to do than watch this movie , look for a powerful cameo by cloris leachman as the sisters ' mother pat .
in a devastating scene , eve discovers that her mother does n't love her .
although leachman is best known for comedies like " young frankenstein " and " the mary tyler moore show , " her performance here reminded me of the considerable dramatic talent she displayed in " the last picture show .
"
bottom line : everyone involved has lived in hollywood so long they do n't recognize real life anymore .
the script is as thin as an anorexic 's wet dream in a devastating scene