Movie Notes: Crimes And Misdemeanors

July 2nd, 2009

= 5 stars

Starring Martin Landau, Anjelica Huston, Alan Alda
Directed by Woody Allen

Synopsis

Judah (Martin Landau) unsuccessfully tries to end an affair with stewardess Dolores (Anjelica Huston), who is increasingly getting out of hand and threatening to expose everything to his wife. Meanwhile, Cliff (Woody Allen) is filming a documentary starring his successful brother in law Lester (Alan Alda), and finding it to be extremely stressful.

The Good

I’ve watched this movie many times with a few years’ between each viewing, and this time it flew by. The drama gets going after the first scene when Judah finds a letter written by his lover, Dolores. When he throws it into a fireplace, we know his initial instinct is to avoid the situation through whatever means possible. The rest of the movie documents how far he’s willing to go.
Solid cast: Martin Landau, who sells Judah’s inner conflict and increasing worry, lending the film tension. Even when he does what we wouldn’t dare, we believe his character would because of Landau’s performance. Huston is equally compelling as the “other woman” – her passion and naiveté makes it clear why Judah was initially attracted to her, yet why she becomes a problem. On the comic side, Alan Alda is pitch perfect as Lester, an obnoxious entertainment guy that is the antitheses of Cliff (Woody Allen). Lester gets some of the film’s funniest wrong-headed lines, including “if it bends, it’s funny. If it breaks, it’s not funny,” and “comedy is tragedy plus time,” both met by Cliff’s eye-rolling.
In both the dramatic and comic plots, Allen tackles the issue of religion, more specifically, is there a God, and in the absence of God, can morality exist? On the humorous side, Cliff is working on a documentary by an uncharacteristically optimistic philosophy professor. Meanwhile, on the dramatic side, Judah contemplates having Dolores bumped off, hiring his shady brother in law Jack, causing Judah to feel extremely guilty and paranoid, sending him on a soul-searching journey back to his religious upbringing. Judah also seeks solace from a patient who is a Rabbi (Sam Waterston) who is slowly going blind (symbolism duly noted). The other overarching question is if someone were able to commit a crime and get away with it, could they continue to live life, or would the guilt weigh on them until their own demise?
A few amazingly directed scenes that still send chills down my spine: Dolores threatening to expose Judah’s financial embezzlement while her head is hidden behind a black object, a camera panning down to a face on the floor set to Schubert’s String Quartet #15 in G, and Judah answering a phone call in the middle of the night – only to hear no-one on the other end.
A pretty dark conclusion, in an amazing scene, commenting on reality vs. tragedy and the fantasy of movies vs. reality.

The Bad

N/A.

Conclusion

Crimes And Misdemeanors was the first movie that really got me interested in Woody Allen. Here, he really perfected a balance between comedy and drama, and also managed some maturity through contemplation of morality and religion, within the simple framework of a man deciding to commit a murder and having us wonder if he’ll get away with it. The chill of a tense Judah answering that one phone call still disturbs me to this day.

If you liked Match Point, give this one a spin because it’s a similar story, arguably told in a more entertaining way. Another one of my favorite Allen films.

Next Woody Allen Movie: Alice
Previous Woody Allen Movie: Another Woman

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