Post by StevePulaski on Dec 11, 2012 12:35:41 GMT -5
Two terrific screen actors (Martin Landau and Woody Allen) in one genuinely entertaining and philosophical film.
Rating: ★★★½
Crimes and Misdemeanors is probably the most stable and focused Woody Allen film I have yet to see, but definitely the most thought-provoking and philosophical, questioning its viewer if they could potentially go on to live with themselves if they, theoretically, "got away with murder?" Allen takes the camera and the pen to write a film that cleanly intertwines two stories heavily built on moral and ethically questionable situations, with one character committing infidelity with his mistress, and another trying to stay afloat with life never giving him a reasonable break.
The first man we are introduced to is the respected, successful ophthalmologist named Judah Rosenthal (Martin Landau) who has a marriage of twenty-five years on one hand and a stable affair going on the other. The affair is with a flight attendant named Dolores Paley (Anjelica Huston), who is beginning to go off the break end, as she feels cheated and strung along by the man who promised to end his marriage with his wife for her. She writes a letter to Judah's wife, which he barely intercepts as it sits openly on the kitchen table, and on numerous occasions tries to reason and rationalize with her to no avail.
Judah then gets a bright idea; his brother named Jack (Jerry Orbach) has mob connections and could potentially have Dolores whacked and get away with it all the more. With that in mind, all he has to do is visit his ethics and see if he could live with such a thing on his conscious. Turns out he can, and here's where the "crime" comes in.
The second story is of Clifford Stern, an unhappy, unsuccessful film director with a marriage quickly souring and a career with no calling. In efforts to show his wife that he still is a functioning human, he takes the job of directing and producing a documentary on her brother Lester (Alan Alda) and his career as a comedian. Lester is an unbearably arrogant man who Cliff can barely tolerate because of his increasing narcissism and belittling conversations, but finds the job somewhat more tolerable upon meeting Halley Reed (Mia Farrow), an associate producer on the project, and the two begin a minor little venture into infidelity. I guess you could call this the "misdemeanor."
What connects these two stories is Sam Waterston's Ben, a rabbi both look to for advice, who is growing increasingly blind. Ben is so devoted to his beliefs in the system of karmic revenge and religion that it seems to be the only thing keeping him going. This character gives us unprecedented depth into screenwriter Allen's possible beliefs in the world, which he ping pongs and explores in an even-handed fashion. The first is the morally devout system of Ben, where all evil deeds are eventually punished in some way, shape, or form. This system invites a little transcendentalism ideology I wasn't expecting from this kind of a story.
The other system is one that is held by Judah's brother Jack, who believes that the only punishments one could pay for sinning is a practical, realistic consequence, which in this case would likely jail time. There's no spirituality involved and the punishments at the individual's expense will be entirely served during his lifetime. This isn't necessarily an atheistic outlook, but one of lesser spiritual devotion. A more pragmatic believer, if you will. We take a look at how his family believed in a vividly detailed flashback late in the film, showing the issue of morality and punishment coming up at a conversation over dinner, with Jack's similar attitude in play.
Crimes and Misdemeanors is blackly funny, richly detailed, smartly and deeply written, and functions as a terrific entry in Allen's never-ending filmography. Two huge chunks contributing to why this is stems from the immense amount of thought and consideration given to the material at hand (IE: the two belief systems and the idea of getting away with something), and the fact that the film oscillates smoothly between these two stories, one of them a sincere and darkly told drama, the other, a romantic story, lacking in things romanticism and mimicking the farcical elements and one-liners Allen erected in his early features such as Bananas and Sleeper. This isn't an uplifting film by any stretch of imagination; we see deeply flawed characters get away with traitorous acts of infidelity, and we see good-natured, competent humans be rewarded with the ricochet effects from their back-stabbing friends and family. This is a hard slice of life, and it takes a capable director to give us this sort of blunt, honest realism in a film.
Starring: Martin Landau, Woody Allen, Anjelica Huston, Mia Farrow, Alan Alda, Jerry Orbach, and Joanna Gleason. Directed by: Woody Allen.