The Woody Allen Collection - Annie Hall/Manhattan/Hannah And Her Sisters (Box Set)

Advantages: Funny, tender, beautifully performed
Disadvantages: Mia Farrow's performance is rather wan

...Whilst the canon of Woody Allen classics is bulging - Annie Hall, Manhattan, Bananas, Zelig - this one pips them all. It combines moments of screwball humour with Allen's classic one-liners, and leavens both with a genuinely touching story of love concerning Hannah and her two sisters. If anything, Hannah, played by Mia Farrow, is the weakest link. She's wan, whiny and it comes as little surprise that Michael Caine - here in excellent Oscar form - wants to play away. As the sisters, Barbara Hershey and Diane Wiest are superlative, the latter a piece of inspired casting as she walks away with much of the film. Woody, as Mia's ex-husband, is simply Woody, quipping and shrugging his way through an exruciating date with Wiest and having a crisis of faith. Even the cameos are superb, with Max Von Sydow chewing the scenery up as angry artist... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful

Advantages: An ambitious and classy addition to Woody Allen's CV
Disadvantages: You might dislike Woody Allen!

...with Hannah's ex-husband Mickey, a hypochondriac television producer played by Woody Allen... Despite the interior monologues, chapter titles and nod to 'Fanny and Alexander' (Like Fanny and Alexander, Hannah and Her Sisters begins and ends with a festive family gathering) Hannah and Her Sisters is not Woody in his ultra serious mode. If the 'early funny ones' (Sleeper, Bananas, Take the Money and Run) constitute 'comedy Woody' and the likes of Interiors, Another Woman and September 'serious Woody' then Hannah and Her Sisters is a return to the 'inbetween Woody', a film with serious themes and dramatic elements but with a big dose of Woody's gift for comedy. Hannah and Her Sisters was unsuprisingly Allen's most succesful film since Annie Hall and an elegant (if slightly rambling) and stylish visit to 'Woody Allen's New York', infused with terrific... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: One of Woody Allen's best films.
Disadvantages: You will need a hanky ready!

...Hello and welcome. If someone asked me name to Woody Allen's single best film I would seriously struggle. There are so many to choose from; Sleeper, Bananas, Radio Days, Matchpoint, Annie Hall, or even Manhattan, part of a city the majority of Allen's stories take place and in the case of Hannah and Her Sisters that's not a bad thing at all. Hannah and Her Sisters was released in 1986 and tells the story of three sisters, who when the film begins we join them at Thanksgiving, it is here at the Thanksgiving Dinner that we find out that the family that the sisters belong to have a few problems that need to be addressed. ---Story--- The title of the film refers to three leading characters, Hannah, Lee and Holly. Lee is married to Frederick who is a Painter but feels tormented with what he has to offer. Holly has aspirations of becoming... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful