Quartile rating: 8/10 · 1 rating
A renowned ophthalmologist is desperate to cut off an adulterous relationship…which ends up in murder; and a frustrated documentary filmmaker woos an attractive television producer while making a film about her insufferably self-centered boss.
Crimes and Misdemeanors is widely considered one of Woody Allen's finest achievements, weaving together two narrative threads — one darkly tragic, one satirically comic — into a searching meditation on morality, guilt, and the indifference of the universe. The plotting is genuinely exceptional, with the parallel stories converging thematically in ways that feel earned rather than contrived. The ensemble acting is superb, particularly Martin Landau's deeply internalized performance as Judah Rosenthal and Alan Alda's perfectly calibrated comic villainy. Cinematography by Sven Nykvist is accomplished and atmospheric but functions largely in service of the story rather than asserting itself as a visual tour de force. The film's novelty lies in its ambitious moral seriousness: a Dostoyevskian crime drama embedded within a Woody Allen comedy, asking whether a man can literally get away with murder and live comfortably — and answering that question in a way that is both philosophically devastating and deeply unsentimental. The ending is among Allen's best, a dinner-party monologue by Judah that crystallizes the film's entire moral argument with chilling clarity and no redemptive comfort, refusing easy resolution.