Hanging Up (2000 Diane Keaton)

Right - let's unravel this and make mockery of IMDB's callous 4.9 rating.

So - Delia Ephron was one of four daughters of screenwriters Phoebe and Henry Ephron, who jointly wrote things like Carousel, Captain Newman MD and Desk Set.

Nora- Sleepless in Seattle, book and film of Heartburn, both of them You've Got Mail.. caught up now? (This is addressed to me as much as anyone.)

And - pay attention - Delia wrote the novel 'Hanging Up' , published in 1996. 'I was 11 when my parents became alcoholics'. Interesting comment. How would you know that? Sister Norah died in 2012 of leukemia - one that runs in the family - Delia got it too. Her older sister had been published first, was a success first.

Sorry - went down a rabbit hole after Nora mentioned restaurant Cinq Sentits in Barcelona - will not be going there. Now what? A Nora Ephron interview by Kathryn Borel - good. Feel I'm not really getting to the nub of anything.

Let's have some pictures while we're digesting all this:

Matthau no doubt cracking up Ryan and Kudrow for real

You forget that Walter used to specialize in quite unlovely, despicable characters like in Slaughter on Tenth Avenue and Strangers When We Meet. After years of playing the eccentric nice guy it's quite a shock to see him flaring up into angry rages the way he does here - a truly great last performance.

Um. It's rather snowily photographed by Howard Atherton. The editing by Julie Monroe (Life Itself, Mud, Danny Collins - before that as assistant on three Oliver Stone films, Born on the Fourth of July, The Doors and JFK) is fine. Meg steals the film from the other two girls; Diane's character is more in the background. Considering father's behaviour at the kids' party it's amazing any of the girls forgave him at all.

The Iranian doctor and his mother are a nice touch - Shaun Duke and Ann Bortolotti. With Adam Arkin, Cloris Leachman, Celia Weston.

So. I can't find a single interview with Delia relating to the publication of 'Hanging Up'. Which in itself may be revealing - that she didn't want to talk about something so clearly autobiographical. (Where the lack of information is the information.) Possibly. Or not. And it seems like the adaptation - which was by both Delia and Nora - is faithful to the novel. But what we do know then is that Delia was one of several competitive sisters whose father (and mother) was an alcoholic and who did die after suffering from Alzheimer's. So I would say that this film is honest and well observed and familiar in many ways, and not just to my own life, and well acted, and interestingly directed, and therefore that it is rather good.