Hanging Up

Hanging Up
Theatrical poster
Directed by	Diane Keaton
Produced by	Nora Ephron Laurence Mark
Written by	Screenplay: Delia Ephron Nora Ephron Book: Delia Ephron
Starring	Meg Ryan Diane Keaton Lisa Kudrow Walter Matthau Adam Arkin Ann Bortolotti Cloris Leachman
Music by	David Hirschfelder
Cinematography	Howard Atherton
Edited by	Julie Monroe
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release dates	February 18, 2000 (2000-02-18)
Running time	94 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$60 million
Box office	$51,880,044

Hanging Up is a 2000 American comedy-drama film about a trio of sisters who bond over the approaching death of their curmudgeonly father, to whom none of them were particularly close. This film features Diane Keaton (who also directed), Meg Ryan, and Lisa Kudrow as the three sisters, and Walter Matthau (in his final film appearance) as the father. The film is based on 1995 Book of the same name by Delia Ephron.

Plot

Georgia Mozell, Eve Marks and Maddy Mozell are adult sisters. Georgia (Keaton) is the editor of her own wildly successful self-titled women’s magazine. She strives for publicity at any cost. Party planner Eve (Ryan) is the mother hen of the group, not only of her own family, but also of her siblings and father as their mother, Pat (Leachman), not only emotionally left their father when they divorced, but her daughters as well. And Maddy (Kudrow) is a vacuous soap opera actress who has always struggled for her own identity. Despite being as busy with her own life as the others, Eve is the only one of the three who deals with the long term hospitalization of their cantankerous seventy-nine-year-old father, Lou Mozell, when he enters the early stages of dementia, and the associated outcomes of that hospitalization. Eve’s caring for Lou is despite an especially hurtful incident with him seven years earlier (when he told her she was a mistake). As the emotional aspect of looking after Lou becomes more and more stressful, Eve has to figure out how to maintain her own sanity, while dealing with her sisters, who believe they too are part of their father’s care while they don’t lift a finger to help.

Cast

• Meg Ryan – Eve Mozell Marks
• Diane Keaton – Georgia Mozell
• Lisa Kudrow – Maddy Mozell
• Walter Matthau – Lou Mozell
• Adam Arkin – Joe Marks
• Cloris Leachman – Pat Mozell
• Jesse James – Jesse Marks
• Edie McClurg – Esther
• Maree Cheatham – Angie
• Myndy Crist – Dr. Kelly
• Celia Weston – Madge Turner
• Stephanie Ittleson – Victoria
• Katie Stratton – Young Georgia Mozell
• Talia-Lynn Prairie – Young Maddy
• Kristina Dorn – Young Pat

Reception

Hanging Up was released in the United States on February 18, 2000, to relatively negative reviews. It made just over $15.7 million opening weekend, over the Presidents' Day weekend, opening at #2 behind The Whole Nine Yards. Hanging Up opened in 2,618 theatres at an average of exactly $6,000. It dropped out of the top 10 in its third week of release, and lasted eight weeks in domestic release. Domestically grossing $36,050,230 with an extra $15,829,814 (from worldwide audiences) brought its international total to $51,880,044. Hanging Up ultimately fell $9 million short of recouping its budget of $60 million.

Hanging Up has a 12% "rotten" rating on Rotten Tomatoes, the consensus being, "Though the screenplay and the novel it's based on were both written by the same person, critics say Hanging Up is an unsuccessful adaptation. The acting is praised as solid, but is ultimately unable to save the film."

External links

• Hanging Up at IMDb
• Hanging Up at Box Office Mojo