Honestly, movies about New York intellectuals in the 80s usually feel like time capsules—museum pieces full of corduroy jackets and rotary phones that don't really speak to us anymore. But the hannah and her sisters movie is different. It’s one of those rare films that somehow gets more relatable as you get older and your own family dynamic starts to look less like a Hallmark card and more like a messy, interconnected web of secrets.
Released in 1986, it’s arguably the peak of Woody Allen’s "novelistic" period. He was reading a lot of Tolstoy and Chekhov at the time, specifically Anna Karenina, and you can feel that weight. It isn't just a comedy. It isn't just a drama. It’s this massive, breathing entity that spans two years and three Thanksgivings, tracking the shifts in love and sanity among three sisters who are, frankly, a lot to handle.
The Sisters: A Triple Threat of Neurosis
At the center of it all is Hannah, played by Mia Farrow. In a move that feels almost voyeuristic now, the movie was actually filmed in Farrow’s real-life apartment on Central Park West. Her real children are in the scenes. Her mother, Maureen O’Sullivan, plays her onscreen mother. It creates this eerie, lived-in texture that you just can't fake on a soundstage.
Hannah is the "perfect" one. She’s a successful actress, a nurturing mother, and the person everyone else leans on until they start to resent her for being so sturdy. Then you have Lee (Barbara Hershey), who’s living with a reclusive, misanthropic artist named Frederick—played with terrifying intensity by Max von Sydow. And finally, there’s Holly.
Dianne Wiest won an Oscar for playing Holly, and for good reason. She is a walking raw nerve. A recovering addict, a struggling actress, a failed caterer—she’s the sister who’s always asking for a loan while simultaneously judging you for having the money to give her. We’ve all got a Holly in our lives. Or maybe we are the Holly.
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That Infamous Affair and the Mid-Life Crisis
The plot kicks off when Hannah’s husband, Elliot (Michael Caine), realizes he’s hopelessly in love with Lee. Caine is brilliant here because he doesn’t play Elliot like a villain. He plays him like a bumbling, panicked accountant who can’t believe he’s about to blow up his life. He literally stalks Lee through the streets of Soho just to "accidentally" bump into her at a bookstore. It’s cringey. It’s human.
Caine actually won his first Oscar for this role, though he famously couldn't accept it in person because he was busy filming Jaws: The Revenge. Talk about a career contrast.
While the affair is simmering, we get the B-plot with Mickey (Woody Allen), Hannah’s ex-husband. Mickey is a hypochondriac TV producer who thinks he’s dying of a brain tumor. When he finds out he’s actually fine, he doesn't celebrate—he has an existential crisis. If he’s not dying today, he’s still going to die eventually, right? So what’s the point?
His journey through world religions—trying to become Catholic, then Hare Krishna—is some of the funniest writing in the film. But it’s grounded in a very real, very dark fear of the void.
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Breaking the Fourth Wall (Sorta)
The hannah and her sisters movie uses these bold, black-and-white title cards to transition between scenes. Some are quotes, some are just thoughts. It makes the movie feel like you’re reading a diary.
- "God, she’s so beautiful!"
- "The Stanislavski setup."
- "Nobody, not even the rain, has such small hands."
It’s pretentious, sure, but it works. It breaks the "movie" feel and makes it feel like a series of interconnected short stories.
Why It Works: The New York of It All
You can't talk about this film without talking about the cinematography. Carlo Di Palma took over for Gordon Willis, and he gave the city a warmer, more autumnal glow. There’s a famous scene where an architect (Sam Waterston) takes Holly and her friend April (Carrie Fisher) on a tour of his favorite buildings.
The camera just lingers on the gargoyles and the limestone. It’s a love letter to Manhattan architecture that has nothing to do with the plot but everything to do with the mood. It’s about people who are so busy with their affairs and their illnesses that they forget to look up at the beautiful things they’re living among.
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The Ending Everyone Argues About
The film ends at a third Thanksgiving. Things have shifted. Relationships have ended, new ones have begun. But there’s a specific revelation in the final minute involving Mickey and Holly that some critics think is "too happy."
Pauline Kael famously found the ending a bit too neat. She felt it betrayed the messy reality of the previous two hours. But honestly? After watching these people suffer through affairs, infertility, and the fear of death, maybe they deserved a break.
The film suggests that life is cyclical. We make mistakes, we feel guilty, we move on, and eventually, we’re all sitting around the same table again eating turkey and pretending everything is fine. That’s not a "Hollywood" ending; that’s just how families work.
Real Talk: Actionable Takeaways for Movie Buffs
If you’re planning to revisit the hannah and her sisters movie, or watch it for the first time, keep these things in mind to get the most out of it:
- Watch the Background: Since it was filmed in Mia Farrow's actual home, look at the art on the walls and the books on the shelves. It’s a level of production design you rarely see today.
- Listen to the Music: The soundtrack is a masterclass in using classic jazz (Count Basie, etc.) and classical music (Bach, Puccini) to signal character shifts. Each sister has a "sound."
- Spot the Cameos: Keep an eye out for a very young Julia Louis-Dreyfus and John Turturro in tiny roles.
- The 360-Degree Shot: There’s a scene where the three sisters are having lunch and the camera just circles the table. It’s one of the most famous long takes in comedy-drama history. Pay attention to how the power dynamic shifts as the camera moves.
The hannah and her sisters movie remains a masterpiece because it doesn't judge its characters. It knows they’re selfish. It knows they’re weak. But it also knows that, at the end of the day, they're all they've got. In 2026, where everything feels so polarized and curated, watching a movie about people who are genuinely, messily human is a relief.
Go find a copy on a high-quality format. The Blu-ray is decent, but if you can find a 4K restoration, the architectural tour of New York alone is worth the price of admission. Just don't expect a commentary track—the director famously refuses to do them. You'll have to find the meaning for yourself.