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Summary: Woody Allen at his best.
Review: I have not seen all of Woody Allen's films, but based on the few I have seen I can quite easily say he is one of the most talented writer/directors of all time. The film is dramatic at times and funny at others. Not only is this the best Woody Allen movie I have ever seen it is one of the best movies I have ever seen.
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Summary: This is why movies are made.
Review: I rented this movie by chance; someone told me it was good. I sat watching this film in complete awe. It wrestles so beautifully with the most basic of human fears and temptations. Landau's performance is stunning. His character's guilt is so justified, as is the steps he wants to take to rid him of that guilt. Allen's part of the story is more subtle, but equally true. And when these two finally meet at the end--the world simply stops and men talk. Wonderful cinema and splendid storytelling.
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Summary: Woody Allen Takes An Extra Step
Review: In »Crimes And Misdemeanors«, the religious and philosophical issues are described in a more direct way than usual in Woody Allen's films. Allen takes a step into areas he has only been fooling around with in his earlier comedies, and he does it wisely, thereby building an exciting film with all the well-known Allen elements, plus a little more.The actors are, as always, well-chosen, and their performances carry the wonderful script through and form a very worthwhile film. It has it all: Love, intrigues, art, murder, religion, US society... again fitted together into a philosophical tale about the small and big problems, the Crimes And Misdemeanors, of contemporary people.
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Summary: Delicate
Review: A delicate film, with two interweaving stories, one a serious murder plot, that meet towards the end to mutual conclusion.
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Summary: A Woody Allen Masterpiece! Don't ignore this movie!
Review: I rate Woody Allen's "Crimes and Misdemeanors" as one of the 10...make that one of the 3 best movies ever made! It's a shame that this film did not stir up more of a buzz upon it's release in 1990, but thankfully it now has a second lease on life via DVD. "Crimes and Misdemeanors" is actually two movies rolled into one, as Allen masterfully intertwines two very different storylines, one a drama of tragic proportions, and the other, a lighter story with some classy comic moments. Thanks to Allen's keen sense of artistry, the two stories converge and successfully come together in the end as a unified whole. In just under 2 hours "Crimes and Misdemeanors" touches on some of the most perplexing questions of human nature, dealing sensitively with matters of ethics, guilt, fidelity, moral relitivism, conscience, and faith in God. The film does not attempt to spoon-feed answers to its audience, but rather raises some heady and important questions for the veiwer to consider,...even about themselves! Veteran actor Martin Landau is outstanding in the part of Judah, the main character of the more dramatic storyline. Landau pumps some real emotion into his character, so much so that you will truly feel his guilt and paranoia in the aftermath of the "crime" refered to in the title. Also very important to the "tragic" section on the film is Sam Waterston in the role of a Rabbi, in many ways this Rabbi is a pivotal chartcter in the story, as his belief in a morally-structered universe is contrasted with Judah's questionable thoughts and actions. Woody Allen, Mia Farrow, and Alan Alda are the stars of the "alternate" storyline, and each is allowed to shine, thanks to Allen's gift for writing witty and fully-realised dialog. In fact the strained relationship between Allen (as an unsuccessful documentary filmmaker) and Alda (as an Aaron Spelling-esque, award winning TV producer) is one of the films many highlights, and Allen's barely-concealed comtempt for his artistic nemesis makes use of Woody's best comic talents. With all of its philosophical implications and brilliant uses of symbolism (something as simple as a car's headlights going out never resonated with so much meaning!) "Crimes and Misdemeanors" would make a great starting point for an ethical or theological bull session, and in fact many Christians and Orthodox Jews have used the film for just that purpose! As the voice-over narration tells us in the films closing moments, "we define ourselves by the choices we have made", and indeed these words come to life as we see the characters onscreen living with the choices that they have made, for better, or for worse. What else can I say, "Crimes and Misdemeanors" is a unique piece of cinema that will untimately challenge the mind, while at the same time keeping the heart deeply entertained! This is the type of cinema that you only get from a master filmmaker like Woody Allen.
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Summary: Woody Allen's Best Film
Review: I still can't get over this film since I first saw it several years ago. Since then I have since it several more times and it never loses the overwhelming power that it had on a first viewing. Woody Allen always makes films about the Meaning of Life, and this one, although certainly not very optimistic, is his best. His mix is drama and comedy here is brilliant, transplanting the viewer between scenes of existential despair and misery, and uproarious laughter. Like most of Allen's best works, this film will leave some viewers cold. Woody Allen has never been one to tie up his films with a bow, but rather to end them on a shrug. But a shrug that stays with the viewer for a long time afterwards.
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Summary: the bravest film he's ever doneThis is the bravest movie Woo
Review: This is the bravest movie Woody Allen has ever done. It's about a respected man of society giving his brother the task of getting rid off his girlfriend, who is threatening his social life. After the task is done the respected man has fits of anxiety but the more everyday life has time to work on him, the more his anxieties disappears until he is finally able to tell his story as an amusing anecdote to a shocked companion at a family-party, of course without revealing his own active role in the drama. Contemporary social life corrupts ethics - that's the theme of the film and it's masterly done. It's the peak of what Woody Allen has achieved so far and seeing the films he has done since this film it doesn't seem likely that he will ever achieve anything like it again. The theme resembles the themes that Costa-Gavras used for 'The Music Box' and 'Betrayed' but maybe I rank this film somewhat higher, because it has more depth in describing the corruption of every-day life and how it dissolves moral anxieties. And it's funny too!
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Summary:
Who said anything about murder?
Review:
Perhaps his most successful blend of humor and darkness, this is one of my favorite movies by Woody Allen or anyone else. It's rooted in a short story by Dostoyevsky, and Chekov's name is referenced in the script. Despite the presence of Alan Alda, an actor I really don't like, I thought all the performances were magisterial. Sometimes I go cold on it and don't watch it for six months at a time, but that just enhances my next experience. I'm not sure if he really hit his all-time peak with this one, but it would be the peak for anyone else on Earth.
This movie is the only answered prayer in the Woody volume 2 box, so get this a la carte instead of getting the box.
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Summary: Allen & Landau surpass all of their other work
Review: I generally enjoy much of Allen's work, although not all of it. Nonetheless, I can't avoid giving this film the recognition it deserves as one of the most thoughtful and profound things done in America in the last generation. As usual, Allen leaves the viewer with an intended sense of anomie, but here the questions raised by this are not cynical or amusing, but profoundly troubling and thought provoking. Because of this, Crimes and Misdemeanors is one of the most meritorious movies made, in my opinion. Apart from the excellent product overall, I was stunned by the excellence of Martin Landau's performance. In short, it was one of the best ever and I am at a total loss to explain why it hasn't been better appreciated. Landau captures all of the self doubt that the film embraces and I can't think of another performance that has ever done so so well, often through silent facial expression and demeanor alone. Alan Alda and Jerry Orbach, two competent journeymen actors also give what were probably their career performances. The other reviews which put this in the top 100 are dead on.
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Summary: THE EYE OF GOD
Review: With INTERIORS, Woody Allen's CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS is the most pessimistic movie of the filmography of this major american director. Don't be afraid, it's not a tragic and existential movie " à la Bergman " ! It's rather a tragi-comedy with laughs dying in your throat. CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS is clearly divided into two different stories : the first one, involving Woody Allen, is a melancholic tale about an unhappy love affair between Allen and Mia Farrow. " It's not fair nor right " is the only thought which will cross your mind at the end of the movie. Shot in warm colours, with a jazzy musical score, it has some vague resemblance with THE PURPLE ROSE OF CAIRO, another Woody Allen masterpiece. The second story is raw, realistic, shot almost entirely at night with cold blue tones. Martin Landau will get rid of his mistress, a superb Anjelica Huston, and forget his guiltiness in front of the silence of his conscience. It's also not fair but, hey !, I told you it was a pessimistic movie. Woody Allen develops also two or three subtle ideas to mark his point like the growing blindness of the Rabbi symbolizing the disparition of a God punishing the bad ones and rewarding the good ones. But it was only during the golden era of Hollywood that happy endings were the common law. A scene access as sole extra-feature (thank you, thank you, thank you !). Great sound but, in my opinion, average images with, at times, funny brown spots over the characters's faces. A -we're alone- DVD.
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