“Hannah” (Mia Farrow) is ostensibly the luckier of the three daughters of an erstwhile actress who has a penchant for the bottle and deludes herself into thinking she is still a bit of a boy-magnet! It’s lucky for the family that she is there for her other sisters “Holly” (Dianne Wiest) and “Lee” (Barbara Hershey) don’t have their own problems to seek. The whole thing now plays out like a top-notch radio play with emotionally internecine personas played out to the full as the neuroses thrive, the stereotypes wrestle each other for prominence and poor old Michael Caine finds his “Elliot” - married to “Hannah” - character constantly scratching his head when he isn’t ducking it. Sister “Holly” is a bit of a loose cannon. An under-employed actress who thinks she would be better off catering instead. Just to make matters worse, she hooks up with “Mickey” (Woody Allen). Now here’s a fruit loop if ever you’ve seen one. He used to be married to “Hannah” but now lives day to day convinced that each one is going to be his last! Moreover, his (Jewish) faith has long since gone the way of the dodo, so what will happen to him afterwards? Meantime, “Lee” is sitting waiting to be discovered. A blank canvas of a woman who has no idea what she wants; whom she wants nor where she’s going and on whom “Elliot” is developing one hell of a crush. With all the ingredients of some intellectual slap-stick and a really quite striking cast, this manages to stay the right side of cringeworthy as it develops into an engagingly characterful and frequently quite witty maelstrom that borders, at times, on farce but that never quite takes that route. Caine is a good comedy actor and his laconic style works well as his relationships are put under a spotlight that extends to us questioning which, if any, of these folks could ever be lived with! Sure, there are certain identifiable threads that run through all of Allen’s works, and they are here too - but having assembled a cast that is able to deliver effortlessly and naturally like this allows this film to come across more distinctly than some of his other works. It’s also holding it’s value well. The story and it’s characters have lost little of their punch over the last forty years and this is proof positive that letting a story breathe can work wonders with a good cast. Now I have to go and watch “Jaws: The Revenge” which kept Caine away from the Oscars.
