Hannah and Her Sisters

Release Year: 1986

Director: Woody Allen

Review: The heart is a resilient muscle, or so Woody Allen proclaims.  Like so many of his works, 'Hannah and Her Sisters' is a masterful examination of love, life and relationships.  Allen sensationalizes relationships, pushing them to the boarders of morality, in order to test the deepest depths of love.  By focusing on three sisters and the tangle of relationship that they weave, we can examine differences between love, lust, structure and comfort.
 
There is no one better than deconstructing these themes and presenting them in a humorous, witty manner than Allen  By heightening the inner turmoil within his characters he illuminates our own fears, worries, and emotions.  This is Woody Allen at his finest.  A complex love story with enough humor to make an intellectual movie feel light and easily absorbable.  Although the characters might do immoral things, Allen doesn't demonize anyone for their actions, or particularly for their thoughts.  Allowing us to sympathize with even flawed characters allows the audience to focus on the themes and place themselves in the characters shoes to ponder what they would do in their situation rather then simply dismiss them as reprehensible.  This is key in telling a story of this nature.  So many times I'm turned off, not because of the story being told, but because I can't get behind the characters.  

There is the ever present 'Allen' character present in the film.  The neurotic, hopeless, fearful man, who is always seeking his next tragedy.  It's easy to dismiss this as Allen repeating himself, but this character is key to the heart of the themes Allen conveys in his movies.  Life is chaotic, random, and usually awful, but it's the best we have.  In the end we all die.  Is it permissible then to be immoral if it makes us happy in what little time we have?  Its this postmodern philosophy that tie his films together.  The film embodies the best qualities of Woody Allen filmography, and is an achievement not only as a thought provoking film, but also as good entertainment.
Rating: 5/5