What was deemed Woody Allen's most commercially successful film, Hannah and Her Sisters seemed to mark a turning point in the director's neurotic palatability. Yet, it has not aged well at all. Yes, the Oscar-winning script is witty and aphoristic in a proper measure, the acting is on par with the stars involved (Mia Farrow, Michael Caine to name a couple), but the film as a whole barely registers as something more than mediocre. Especially in hindsight when—not even mentioning the Farrow/Allen controversies—we know how solidified certain tropes and characters types are for Woody Allen, there's nothing about Hannah and Her Sisters that can remain truly fresh for contemporary audiences. That said, being in the company of such a stellar ensemble cast, also including names like Carrie Fisher, Maureen O'Sullivan, Julia Louis-Dreyfus. A curious presence here is that of Ingmar Bergman collaborator Max Von Sydow, star of The Seventh Seal, especially since Allen borrowed themes and plot allusions from the Swedish filmmaker's later work, Fanny and Alexander (1982).

Golden Globe nominee Mia Farrow deserves the spotlight. The star of Rosemary's Baby might have been overlooked by the Academy who awarded both Michael Caine and Dianne Wiest as supporting actors, but we here know better than that. As the titular Hannah (who is, in fact, overshadowed by her sisters), Farrow crafts a subtle performance of gradual disillusionment as her husband (Caine) sustains an affair with one of her siblings. There are only a couple of clues as to whether Hannah ever found out about the infidelity or not, but Farrow's slightly feigned composure conceals a potentially sarcastic stance against the normalization of men cheating. As in all Woody Allen films, men never know what they want, who they want, and when they want it, but no woman really confronts their shortcomings head on. Hannah, with her supportive words and seemingly endless empathy, actually exposes the inadequacy of her husband to the audience, gracefully and decisively.