Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989)

“[to his wife] Honey, you’re the one who stopped sleeping with me, ok. It’ll be a year come April 20th. I remember the date exactly, because it was Hitler’s birthday.” – Clifford Stern

Number of Times Seen – 1 (23 Aug 2018)

Brief Synopsis – A doctor must decide what to do when his mistress threatens to tell his wife about their affair.

My Take on it – Woody Allen is a hit or miss Director IMHO and sometimes he can be silly yet other times superb.

This film fits into the latter category and I can’t believe that I only got to see this film now for the first time.

He is able to create very realistic and genuine characters in this story who each have their own unique problems and dilemmas for us to watch and judge their actions.

The cast is superb and Martin landau is amazing in the lead role especially since we get to see how tormented he gets when trying to make decisions as to how to act on the problems he is faced with.

Allen manages to tell numerous concurrent stories in this film and it;’s always interesting to watch how he finds innovative ways to connect the people and the stories along the way.

He does an amazing job directing this film and there is no surprise that he got an Oscar nomination for Best Director for this work.

The dialogue is superbly written and helps the story flow so well the entire time.

This film works as a great morality play that most viewers can find some way to related to the stories and character presented because they all seem so real and genuine.

Bottom Line – Allen does it again. He is able to create great characters with realistic problems for us to judge.  Superb cast led by Martin Landau who gives such an amazing performance as a man torn apart by the problems he is faced with.  The way that Allen manages to tell numerous stories all at once and then finding ways to connect them is done expertly here and I can understand how he could get (yet) another Oscar Nomination for Best Director for this film.  Great morality play as many of the characters face dilemmas that can be easily related to by most people in some way.  Dialogue is superb to listen to because it flows so well.  Highly Recommended!

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – During an argument with Cliff, Lester says he has a closet full of Emmys. In real life, Alan Alda had won four Emmys prior to appearing in the film and got another one after the movie. (From IMDB)

Rating – Oscar Worthy (9/10)

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