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Hannah Takes The Stairs (2007) DVD Review
Hannah Takes The Stairs (2007) DVD Credits:
Hannah Takes The Stairs (2007) Directed by:
Joe Swanberg
Hannah Takes The Stairs (2007) Written by:
Joe Swanberg, Greta Gerwig
Hannah Takes The Stairs (2007) Cast:
Greta Gerwig, Kent Osborne, Andrew Bujalski, Ry Russo-Young, Mark Duplass, Todd Rohal
Hannah Takes The Stairs (2007) Released by:
Film Science
Region:
1
Hannah Takes The Stairs (2007) DVD Release Date:
21st April 2008
Our Rating: Extras Rating:

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Hannah Takes The Stairs (2007) Synopsis:

Hannah is an intern working at a production company. Recently separated from her boyfriend, this bright and quirky girl attaches herself to her two co-workers, Matt and Paul. She finds herself attracted to both guys and must decide what kind of relationship she truly wants with whom.

Hannah Takes The Stairs (2007) DVD Review:

If you transform The Blair Witch Project into an Indy comedy, you will get Hannah Takes the Stairs. Though the acting is more realistic in Hannah Takes the Stairs, the film is still shot with a shaky home-movie feel. Watching this movie is like watching a making-of featurette, and there is a reason why making-of featurettes are reserved for extras. The style of this movie is distracting and smug. The storyline is not engaging at all. This film will get on your nerves a lot and is definitely not worth the time.

Hannah, a quirky intern at a production company, starts really contemplating her love life and decides that she no longer wants to be with her slacker boyfriend. However, she quickly takes to her equally quirky co-workers, Matt and Paul. Hannah bonds to both of them with her slightly nerdy charm. First, she establishes a sexual relationship with Paul, isolating Matt. She soon changes her mood and decides to give Matt a try. The actual film production work does not play much of a role in this supposed romantic comedy.

Joe Swanberg and Greta Gerwig are very proud of themselves. Their film has the typical Indy attitude of “we’re weird and offbeat so we are automatically cooler than the mainstream.” But really, this film is just annoying. It does not evoke much emotion. It does not provide a new and interesting way of looking at the world. The banter about trumpets and showers is realistic but boring. This film just tries too hard to be realistic, but doesn’t try hard enough to be interesting. If you want to spend an hour and a half watching a movie about a life less interesting than yours, than feel free to watch Hannah Takes the Stairs.

The acting is not bad, but it doesn’t really stand out either. It is good simply because it isn’t distracting. The idea of this film is to depict reality, so the actors do not have much of a stretch.

There are numerous extras included on this DVD, but none of them is more interesting than the movie, which isn’t saying much. The behind the scenes featurette and the “deleted duges” just show unfunny outtakes that don’t add anything to the understanding of the movie. The Film Festival Video Production Diary Spots are useless. All they show are insignificant incidents like a sound guy putting a mike on Greta Gerwig. The Commentary is also dull. The director and two stars talk about trivial things like the color of the couch cover, which makes the film even more sleep inducing. Swanberg also includes a short film in these extras. It lasts only a couple of minutes, but consists of a woman asking her boyfriend for her sweater over the phone. Like Hannah Takes the Stairs, this short film is made to depict reality. Again, if we wanted to see real life, we wouldn’t watch movies.

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Hannah Takes The Stairs (2007) DVD review written by: Kirsten Moore

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