Crimes and Misdemeanors
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Movie Reviews of Crimes and Misdemeanors
Movie Review: deep and entertaining
Summary: 5 Stars
A rare gem. I imagine that Lester is an auto-parody of the real-life Woody - it adds yet another dimension.
Movie Review: One of Allen's best films!
Summary: 5 Stars
This is one of Woody Allen's best films, and for the price of $10 it is a no-brainer to buy it!Movie Review: If you want justice, see a Hollywood movie
Summary: 4 Stars
Woody Allen and an excellent martin Landau occupy opposite poles in this serious and cynical about high crimes and guilt. Landau plays Judah Rosenthal, a prosperous and respected opthamologist who seems to have the perfect life. Angelica Huston plays Dolores, his secret mistress - a stewardess who stole his heart and, when he tried to break things off, forced Judah to turn in desperation to his criminal brother, Jack (Jerry Orbach). Though Jack can offer Judah the ultimate protection from Dolores, Judah has been an essentially honest and upstanding man for most of his life. Agonized by the guilt for an act of murder he put into motion, and with no apparent sign that he will ever be brought to justice, Judah begins to come undone.Keeping the flick from settling into Judah's performance of self destruction, Allen plays Cliff Stern, another in the long line of losers. Cliff is the ultimate loser - stuck to a wife who has no respect for him, forced to beg for work producing films he can't respect for people he can't stand (who are, of course, much more successful than he is), and pursuing what he must know to be a futile pursuit for the perfect women (Mia Farrow - which dates the material). Cliff divides his time between his professional work, watching old movies and occasionally working on his masterpiece - a documentary based on the life of a famous philosopher of optimism who survived the Holocaust. Nothing goes right for Cliff - he is forced to turn to his brother in-law, Lester (Alan Alda) for work. Lester embodies everything that kills Cliff - mostly how Cliff's power is inversely related to how uninspired a hack he is. Underlying Cliff's almost sheer hatred for Lester, of course, is envy, though Cliff remains too high-minded to admit it. Mia Farrow plays the woman sought by each - more agressively by Cliff, though you know Cliff's cause is lost the moment Farrow appears. The last straw is the subject of Allen's documentary, who shows some obvious signs of having been patterned after Primo Levy , the famed Holocaust survivor and optimist who died years after the war under circumstances suggesting suicide. When Allen's fictitious philosopher ends his life under much less ambiguous circumstances, and having already poisoned things with Lester, Cliff is cast adrift, floating in a melancholy fugue wondering why he's suffering while untalented hacks have all the success. (The script makes clear that Cliff's tormentors will prosper despite themselves, not even leaving Cliff the slightest hint that his efforts will pay off, or that hacks like Lester will get what's coming to them). Allen brilliantly sets up Cliff's predicament while Judah goes to pieces wondering if he'll ever have to face justice for having his lover offed.
This was a great flick - though it feeds Allen's ego as being the creator of a non-Hollywood (read, pure) movie (we must know that nobody is going to get what they deserve, a very non-commercial prospect), it does it magnificently. Cliff is a loser, but Allen doesn't arouse pity for him - we never get the idea that Cliff is a man who would deserve success for his work, or that he does deserve love from anybody. And we also know what Cliff doesn't - that a troubled woman has been murdered by hired killers who will never face justice - which makes his own predicament seem ridiculous. Yet Allen makes Cliff nonetheless sympathetic, building him up to confront Judah in the last few moments of the flick. Finally meeting the for the first time, Cliff and Judah toss out their ideas of justice as if they were talking about a movie. Of course neither tells the other their more personal ideas or fears. By now, Judah has come full circle, and in hashing his simple idea of a guilt-plagued murderer who suddenly wakes up with a clean conscience, Judah has taught himself to distinguish between justice and closure - which is the difference between morality and a dramatic device. Morality will always be open to interpretation, he essentially tells Cliff, but closure is something that exists only within the Hollywood movie.
Movie Review: Thought Provoking and Humorous.
Summary: 4 Stars
~Crimes and Misdemeanors~ is one of Woody Allen's more acclaimed motion pictures. Not since 'Hannah and Her Sisters' had the critics as well as the American public gave it the attention and praise that most of his films deserve. Allen has commented many times that people in his native land, generally, stay away from his pictures in droves. In fact, he has also said, that aside from a small American following, and a substantial European audience, he'd be out of business completely. ~Crimes~ is a unique and decidedly intelligent film that addresses some weighty religious, philosophical and psychological questions, and still managed to gain attention and sell a few tickets at the American box office.Martin Landau (who won an Oscar for Best Actor) plays Judas - a successful optician caught at the receiving end of his mistresses (Angelica Huston) neurotic threats of revealing their two-year love affair to his wife and the world. Judas's dilemma peaks when his mistress, in a last ditch effort to get him back, threatens to reveal some unscrupulous business dealings in his past. Offers of money and pleas for forgiveness work to no avail until Judas is compelled to do something drastic. The man created two lives, and one is about to destroy the other. He decides to contact his long lost unscrupulous brother, and rationalize that the only way to solve the problem is to fix the mistress - permanently. (Crime)
Woody Allen plays an unhappily married, frustrated documentary filmmaker. Pitted against his egotistical and successful filmmaker brother-in-law (Alan Alda) who hires him to make a biographical documentary about his life. It is here that the Allen character entertains the idea of having an affair with one of the producers, (Mia Farrow) and makes some feeble efforts to do so but the affair is doomed to failure. (Misdemeanor)
This film is about making ethical choices in one's life and the various ways one can deal with the consequences of those choices. What is right and wrong? When one transgresses against what one perceives as ethical behaviour, personally and socially, is it human nature to justify and rationalize the transgression to the point where life is bearable enough to continue? Is our behaviour monitored by an all-seeing-eye, God, and at the end of our lives, will we be brought into account for our transgressions? In other words, is there divine justice? Is it 'only in the movies' that a murderer would turn themselves into the police, confront the evil deed, and assume responsibility?
The genius of this film is its ability to address these philosophical and psychological issues and tell it in a manner that is thought provoking, humorous and entertaining all at the same time.
This DVD would be a valuable addition to any serious film lover's collection, whether a fan of Woody Allen or not.
Movie Review: Mature Look at the Thin Line of Morality -
Summary: 4 Stars
Woody Allen directs, produces and stars in "Crimes and Misdemeanors." It is a meaty, complex film with interesting, fine-tuned characters and provoking relationships. Many topics are examined including infidelity, murder, God and religion, moral rules of the universe, comedy, adultery and tragic situations.
Cliff Stern (Woody Allen) is a struggling documentary filmmaker in a marriage that has becoming boring and meaningless. His wife asks her brother, Lester (Alan Alda) a successful comedy star to give Cliff a job so they have income to live on. In the meantime we see Martin Landau playing a successful ophthalmologist, Judah Rosenthal, who is having an affair with a former airline stewardess, Dolores (Anjelica Huston), who loves him deeply and is threatening to go to Judah's wife and discuss the relationship. She wants Judah for herself and he may have made promises to her he cannot keep. He is deeply troubled and discusses his sin to Ben (Sam Waterston, a patient and learned rabbi who is losing his eyesight but not his faith. Ben recommends Judah tell his wife and ask forgiveness. The relationship may change but the truth and forgiveness is the moral way out. Judah cannot hurt his wife of 25 years and turns to his brother Jack, a man of the underworld, connected to the mob and can make things "happen" - in this case, get rid of Dolores who is also threatening to blackmail Judah on some fund movements between stocks and foundation monies she knows about.
In separate scenes Cliff is continuing making the documentary about his pompous brother-in-law, Lester, and they are both falling for the film's producer (Halle Reed (Mia Farrow). Even though Cliff is married, he is not happy and lets Hallie know his feelings for her. Lester is also a "ladies man" and is shown flirting with starlets after hours. He has a very high opinion of himself, and Cliff struggles with his failures and hopes. His other project involved a professor speaking on the joys of humankind, happiness and optimism. Ironically, Lester learns his "star" has committed suicide so he has to "shelve" his one hopeful dream project.
Overall "Crimes and Misdemeanors" is a mature look at the complex rules of morality and what how each individual frames their actions, and how "chance" plays in the game. One line mentioned during a Jewish Sedar was that "If Hitler won the war, history books would have been written much differently."