"Sometimes,
it’s important to disconnect," a wise woman tells Eve in one
of the crucial scenes in Hanging Up. Much of the family
relationship dynamics between three sisters and their father in Diane
Keaton’s directorial debut plays out in an endless noise of phone
chatter. The constant buzzing of dialogue across the phone lines may
seem over-the-top, but Hanging Up delivers a potent taste of
modern pressures, especially in the lives of women. Some may find it
annoying and exaggerated, but this movie enlightens as much as it
entertains.
Considering how much of the screen-time is spent on
phone connection or disconnection between multiple characters, we are amazed
that Hanging Up achieves powerful character development by
covering a range of profound emotional and family issues while
delighting with great humor, mostly coming from Eve’s Dad (Walter
Matthau).
Of the three sisters, Eve (Meg Ryan), Georgia (Diane
Keaton), and Maddy (Lisa Kudrow), Eve is the one that doesn’t know
when enough is enough. She can’t help feeling consumed by the senile
quirks of her dying father. She can’t disconnect her
super-career sister Georgia who is only too full of advice, but usually
short of help, nor can she say "no" to her other sister Maddy,
who seems to call or come around only when she needs a favor. To round
out the pressures, Eve’s key business event is running into constant
complications, and she causes a car accident, which seriously changes
the looks of a doctor’s Mercedes. Eve seems to be hooked on solving
every person’s problem, but the pressures pulling in opposite
directions begin to tear her apart.
Eve must find the roots of her maddening drive to accommodate
everyone, and she must heal the wounds of disconnection that have
plagued her family since her youth. Meg Ryan expertly enacts Eve through
a difficult balance of overwhelming agitation and life-saving
reflection, and Diane Keaton deserves every credit for drawing out the
wistful magic of Eve’s memories and her subsequent understanding of
her frame of mind and heart.
A great deal of Eve’s perturbation comes from her
mother’s absence. In essence, Eve is an un-mothered child because her
mother was ill suited for childbearing. The harsh impact of such a
situation would be hard for any unloved child to accept, and Eve’s
tragic example raises the issue that women and society-at-large must
finally recognize; we can no longer expect, assume, or even pretend that
giving birth is every woman’s source of fulfillment and happiness.
Because she’s unwanted by her mother, Eve becomes a frantic mess of a
woman killing herself to accommodate others so she can feel needed. Even
her relationship with her father has deteriorated into a crippling
co-dependency as each had used the other to compensate for the mother’s
abandonment.
Another touching aspect to the film comes from Eve’s
struggle with her dying father who lingers between a drunken rage,
childlike dependency, and senility. Even with the backdrop of
light-heartedness, the pain of watching a parent whither away is
unmistakable.
Thus, Eve meets her need to let go, to disconnect, and
be still for a moment to recognize the gaping wounds that make it
impossible for her to have genuine relationships with her loved ones.
Although not perfect, Hanging Up delivers an
experience of authentic humor and profound reflection.
