Hannah and Her Sisters

I didn't really care too much for the main plot of this movie. Who is Hannah anyway? Well, it's Mia Farrow, isn't it? But I mean, really, she doesn't seem to be much of a titular character. But she's got these sisters, see, and a husband and an ex-husband and they seem to be of much more interest than Hannah.

What is interesting is that Woody plays Mia's ex. I figure that in real life they were still together at this point. But even Michael Cane who plays Mia's current husband is adultrous after four years of marriage. Four years, incidentally, is how long Woody and Mia have been making movies (euphemistically?) together.*

Mia's husband has an affair with her sister. Another sister is struggling to make it on her own. These all sound like recycled plot devices. And they are.

But what I did find compelling about this movie was the secondary plot, which also is a recycling of old material. It centers on Woody's character called "the hypochondriac" who, after a series of false alarms, thinks he finally actually has a brain tumor. To come to terms with his imminent death, he joins a series of religions unsuccesfully. Finally he decides to kill himself. Guess what? He doesn't. But what he does do is go and see a Marx Brothers movie and makes this statement:

"I should stop ruining my life searching for answers I'm never gonna get and just enjoy it while it lasts."

A classic Woody Allen-ism. But what it has to do with the rest of the movie, I don't know.

I give it maybe just shy of three stars.

*Some other facts of possible interest are that Mia Farrow did have twins with her first husband, and the adopted children in the movie are played by her actual adopted children. So, it makes you wonder, when Hannah gets upset over her sister lifting aspects of her private life for a play, if some of that isn't how Mia actually feels re: Woody.