Hannah and Her Sisters

Directed by Woody Allen, Hannah and Her Sisters details the comings and goings of several individuals in the same extended family – including Allen’s Mickey, Michael Caine’s Elliot, Mia Farrow’s Hannah, and Barbara Hershey’s Lee. Filmmaker Allen, armed with his own screenplay, delivers an erratically-paced yet mostly satisfying endeavor that benefits from the stellar efforts of its talented performers, as folks like Caine, Farrow, and Hershey turn in top-notch work that goes a long way towards elevating the proceedings on a regular basis – with the cavalcade of familiar faces within the supporting cast, including Richard Jenkins, Fred Melamed, John Turturro, and J.T. Walsh, perpetuating the compulsively watchable atmosphere. It’s equally clear, however, that Hannah and Her Sisters‘ emphasis on multiple subplots does ensure that certain portions of the narrative fare demonstrably better than others, with, for example, the continuing exploration of Mickey’s extreme hypochondria perhaps not quite as enthralling as Allen has most likely intended. (Everything involving Max von Sydow’s Frederick, on the other hand, is completely captivating and engaging.) By the time the rewarding final stretch rolls around, Hannah and Her Sisters has cemented its place as a solid (albeit sometimes overly verbose) piece of work that succeeds most potently as a showcase for its superb performances.

*** out of ****