Adultery and Murder AKA "Crimes and Misdemeanors"

This Woody Allen film (from 1989) has got to be one of his best. I admit that I hadn't seen one of his films since the old Annie Hall days. For some reason I had skipped Crimes and Misdemeanors when it first came out. Well, just lately I watched it for the first time and found it very intriguing and very entertaining from beginning to end.


There are two main stories going on in this movie with a couple of subplots also. The first is the story about Judah Rosenthal (Martin Landau), a successful ophthalmologist, who has been having a long extramarital affair, although he is married. The second storyline is about Woody Allen himself, as Clifford Stern, an neurotic married man who is trying to become a successful documentary director, but somehow always comes up short. Of course, as with most, if not all, of Woody Allen's movies, this is a complex movie about relationships, people and more relationships.


Judah sees the perfect life he has carved out for himself at the brink of ruin when his lover, the very intense Dolores (Anjelica Huston) demands in no uncertain terms that Judah leave his wife and marry her. Judah, at wit's end confides in his close friend, Ben, a rabbi (played by Sam Waterston). He talks candidly about his dilemma and Ben tells Judah that he should confess his indiscretions to his wife, Miriam, and hope for a new beginning. Confession and forgiveness. Ben sounds like the voice of God. But Judah and Ben are of two different worlds. Ben says that "without God, we have no basis to know how to live". Judah says "God is a luxury he cannot afford." Ben goes on to say that "without the law, it's all darkness" which is ironic because his character is losing his vision. Later Judah, still unsure of what to do, confides in his brother, Jack, (the late Jerry Orbach) who is the black sheep of the family. Jack chastises Judah saying he only calls him when he needs something. After listening to Judah's dilemma, Jack suggests that maybe Judah needs to be rid of his "problem". Judah is shocked by Jack's implication and cannot even fathom the idea of doing away with his girlfriend. But Judah continues by saying he will not be destroyed by this neurotic woman (Dolores) and somehow thinks he is beyond good and evil. He knows, deep down, that his wife, Miriam (Claire Bloom) will never understand his affair and he absolutely cannot face telling her.


Meanwhile, Clifford Stern (Allen) is given a job assignment, arranged by his wife, to whom he is unhappily married. She has arranged for him to direct a documentary on her highly successful brother and television producer, Lester (Alan Alda). Clifford despises Lester and his success; Cliff turns up his nose at everything Lester says and does, although he does begrudgingly accept the job assignment. While filming, he meets Halley Reed, (Mia Farrow) who is also at work on the set. The two begin a friendship and view footage of Lester together. Cliff doesn't miss any opportunity to harshly criticizes Lester's every move.


Halley Reed: [of Lester] "He's an American phenomenon."

Clifford Stern: "Yeah, like acid rain."


Clifford, in his footage, tries to make Lester look bad by comparing his gestures to Mussolini, for example. Lester is basically a sycophant and his profound statements on life (and comedy) are: "If it bends, it's funny, if it breaks, it's not," and... "comedy is tragedy plus time."


Clifford shows Halley his real passion which is footage of an elderly professor named Louis Levy, who discusses war, peace and the nature of man. Halley is impressed and she and Cliff become close friends. Soon Clifford declares his love for Halley.


Does the humor in this situation allow us to see our own weaknesses and escape them and at the same time reinforce our own sense of humanity? In this film, the bad guys seemingly win and good doesn’t always necessarily triumph. Is crime ok if you think you can get away with it or if we can rationalize that it is the right thing to do? Are people healed by time and forgetfulness/forgiveness in matters of acts of treachery? This is the kind of "food for thought" that Allen poses in his movie.


During the final scene (a wedding scene), an extremely depressed Allen (Clifford) and content Judah meet for the first time. The two begin to talk and the conversation casually turns to planning the perfect murder, to which, Judah tells Clifford that he knows how to plan the perfect murder. Interesting to see how far Judah has come, almost full circle.


Is Judah plagued by a deep-rooted guilt? "The eyes of God are on us always," his father's voice tells him as Judah goes to visit his childhood home. I was fascinated as I watched how Judah was pushed into a corner and further watched him rationalize his behavior and his decisions about his life, while talking to himself and with others.


This is a story of morality. Allen tells us that people rationalize and they carry their sins around with them their entire lives. Sometimes people are not punished for their crimes, life gets back to normal, the crisis is lifted and we get off 'scot-free'. This is a chilling story in one sense because of that. How can a person live with what they have done on their conscience? The reality is that we can and do rationalize and Allen knows this. "Our character is the sum total of our choices" is a very strong statement.


By the end of the movie, we see that everyone but Clifford has what they want. The universe is somehow back into alignment. This movie shows that Allen is a deep, sophisticated thinker and it also shows different perspectives with fundamental human and religious problems.



This movie funs 107 minutes and is classified as a tragi-comedy. Rated PG-13. Definitely well worth renting.


Written and directed by Woody Allen.





~thanks for reading~


©: gkm



.