Hanging Up A Movie Review	MPAA Rated - PG-13 It's 1:34 Long A Review by The Dude on the Right

Anyway, "Hanging Up" tell the story of three sisters and their dealing with a dying father. You've got Diane Keaton as Georgia, the self-survivor, sibling the other sisters are a little jealous of, and out of town sister who just gets the updates on dad's condition. Then you've got Lisa Kudrow as Maddy. She's the youngest, a soap opera star who seems most disappointed that no one in her family watches her show. She's the in-town sister who's mostly too busy to deal with dad. Then there is Meg Ryan as Eve. She's the middle sister, with a husband and son, who has taken upon herself to be the one to have to deal with her father's illness on a day to day basis, maybe, mostly, because it seems it is her phone number he always remembers. Oh yea, you've got Walter Matthau as Lou, the crotchety old dad. It's a tough story to tell because everyone has a different way they deal with a parent's aging, and "Hanging Up" does a good job at differentiating the roles, but it ends up being too "all is good and loving" as the sisters come together for dad's last days. These sisters talk to each other about everything, usually in a phone conversation that abruptly ends without saying "Goodbye," complain to each other about everything in a phone conversation that abruptly ends without saying "Goodbye," but just don't seem to understand each other until it's too late for everyone but Eve to have to deal with the day to day sadness of a father's illness.

Lisa Kudrow and Diane Keaton are given the same posturing as stars in this movie, but "Hanging Up" is really Meg Ryan and Walter Matthau's film, more about their relationship than the other sisters, and one daughter dealing with a dying father who will hug her one minute and curse her the next. At times we hate our parents, at times we feel sorry for them, but in "Hanging Up" it shows that through it all we still love them.

The trailer for the movie kinda hints that "Hanging Up" is a funny look at three sisters and their father, but this movie is a serious drama with some very cute moments (case in point - Eve having coffee with the mother of a doctor's car which she hit, and the mother being the person Eve really needs to here from, with the wisdom of a mother Eve hasn't had because her mom left her father long ago), so my own bit of wisdom is to go into "Hanging Up" expecting a drama and not a comedy and I think you might enjoy the movie a little more.

Unfortunately I didn't go into the movie that way and maybe because of that the movie dragged a little more than it should have. I love Meg Ryan as an actress, always enjoy her in a movie, and "Hanging Up" is no different. Diane Keaton is underutilized, maybe mostly because she also directs the film and her character is set as the outsider, and Lisa Kudrow still shows that she has to be the most versatile actress off the set of "Friends." But I thought the movie actually lost itself with the sister aspect, in fact, as Eve, I doubt I would have been as forgiving as she was with the lack of interest the sisters showed. I would have preferred a story of one daughter with no mother to lean on, a dying father you can hate but have to love, and the sadness of a parents growing old. But, that's just me.

So, in the end I was happy to see the movie end, and with that it's 2 stars out of 5. It had a lot of potential, kinda got lost in it's intertwining of sisterhood, and I would wait for cable or a rental.

That's it for this one! I'm The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!