Hannah and Her Sisters

1986 must have been a slow year in the eyes of the Academy as I have no idea why this took two of the three Oscars it garnered. Yes, Michael Caine deserved his, hell, he desrved one years before so I won't complain about that but one for Woody Allen's script and Dianne Wiest? Really, Dame Maggie should have grabbed it for her work in A ROOM WITH A VIEW and when you put the script up against Oliver Stone's PLATOON or Hanif Kureishi's MY BEAUTIFUL LAUNDRETTE....well...perhaps I'm splitting hairs but I just didn't think Allen deserved it for this one. HANNAH AND HER SISTERS is a heart breakingly funny piece of neurotic work for sure and this is Woody's bread and butter so fans of his work will not be let down. For myself it was a disjointed bummer though I was more than happy to see my Montreal buds THE 39 STEPS in it even though Chris Barry, God bless him, never shut up when the damn flick took it's Oscars! While I did enjoy Allen's search for religion and meaning which was bloody hilarious I couldn't help but feel an incestuous horripilation when watching the real life characters interact. Maureen O'Sullivan working with daughter Mia Farrow working with four of her children one of which Woody would later leave her for. Yes, can't help it but that little bit of New York weirdness rather creeped me out. Look for Julia Louis-Dreyfus in her second film appearance and ask yourself if Max Von Sydow is acting or not.