Delia Ephron's novel about three sisters dealing with their senile father is translated to the screen here by director Diane Keaton, who also stars as the eldest sibling. However, Keaton and her co-star Lisa Kudrow get very little screen time compared to Meg Ryan, the daughter who is usually responsible for dear old dad (Walter Matthau). As a result, the film ends up a lifeless and clichéd tale about the relationship between Ryan's character and her father. This film was to prove Matthau's final role and he bows out with some good lines, but you'll yearn for more scenes like the deliciously bitchy one in which the girls turn on each other and blame one another for everything that's gone wrong in their lives.

Three sisters - Georgia, Eve, and Maddy - do what they do best with life, love, and lunacy on the telephone lines that bind - when their curmudgeonly father, Lou, is admitted to a Los Angeles Hospital. After years of wild living, intermittent affection, and constant phoning, he is finally threatening to die.