Crimes and Misdemeanors is Woody Allen's ironic reimagination of Crime and Punishment. Martin Landau plays a successful man who commits a crime, not directly and certainly not for money, but for tranquility in the bedroom. A reawakening of religion resolves and dispels his guilt in unexpected ways. Woody Allen, in one of his comic gravedigger roles, plays an unsuccessful man whose longing for tranquility in the bedroom is ultimately resolved only by his child-like love of movies. Plot and subplot -- reality and fantasy -- neatly cross and veer in opposite directions.
Allen the scriptwriter here is outstanding even if, by 1989, Allen the on screen nebbish had become something of an outlier in his own movies. The ensemble Allen directs in Crimes and Misdemeanors is equally outstanding, especially Landau and Mia Farrow. The allusions to other movies and to music will keep cinephiles busy. Allen's toying with the Jewish tradition resembles the Coen Brothers', in A Serious Man. The eyes have it.
Allen the scriptwriter here is outstanding even if, by 1989, Allen the on screen nebbish had become something of an outlier in his own movies. The ensemble Allen directs in Crimes and Misdemeanors is equally outstanding, especially Landau and Mia Farrow. The allusions to other movies and to music will keep cinephiles busy. Allen's toying with the Jewish tradition resembles the Coen Brothers', in A Serious Man. The eyes have it.