Described by some critics as Woody Allen's attempt to make a film in the style of Ingmar Bergman, this heavily-stylised tale of inter-familial bickering does finally get around to showing us the kind of film it might have been all along. As soon as dumpy, abrasive Maureen Stapleton steps on to the scene, as the new bride-to-be of the father of the film's three sisters, the movie not only tightens up, but brightens up, taking its cue from the colour of her dress. She gives the over-intense events a new dimension, a different ingredient against which the other characters - all as neurotic as each other - can play. The performance was rightly rewarded with an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actress, an award she actually won three years later for Reds. The subtle cinematography of Allen's regular cameraman, Gordon Willis, complements the director's vision.

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