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Director: Woody Allen
Screenplay Woody Allen
Featured Cast: Alan Alda, Woody Allen, Claire Bloom, Mia Farrow, Joanna Gleason, Angelica Huston, Martin Landau, Jerry Nichols, Jerry Orbach, and Sam Waterston.
1989
Review
A respected ophthalmologist must re-examine his moral values when his mistress threatens to reveal their affair to his wife. This is the first film out of at least four in which Woody examines the themes of freedom and guilt as presented in Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment. (The others are Cassandra’s Dream, Match Point, and, Irrational Man).
While I enjoyed all of the above films, it seems to me that Crimes and Misdemeanors was the most successful. It had an excellent balance of humor and message, a good script, good acting, along with the production value of some of his best films. It was also a novel idea when he presented it for the first time in 1989. Woody is a very talented director and I believe he can write and direct serious drama as well as comedy; however he has shown in this film and Hannah and Her Sisters that his use of comedy in his dramatic pictures aids the films without subtracting from its message. This film is recommended for those who enjoy drama with a touch of dark humor.
Crimes and Misdemeanors
Screenplay Woody Allen
Featured Cast: Alan Alda, Woody Allen, Claire Bloom, Mia Farrow, Joanna Gleason, Angelica Huston, Martin Landau, Jerry Nichols, Jerry Orbach, and Sam Waterston.
1989
Review
A respected ophthalmologist must re-examine his moral values when his mistress threatens to reveal their affair to his wife. This is the first film out of at least four in which Woody examines the themes of freedom and guilt as presented in Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment. (The others are Cassandra’s Dream, Match Point, and, Irrational Man).
While I enjoyed all of the above films, it seems to me that Crimes and Misdemeanors was the most successful. It had an excellent balance of humor and message, a good script, good acting, along with the production value of some of his best films. It was also a novel idea when he presented it for the first time in 1989. Woody is a very talented director and I believe he can write and direct serious drama as well as comedy; however he has shown in this film and Hannah and Her Sisters that his use of comedy in his dramatic pictures aids the films without subtracting from its message. This film is recommended for those who enjoy drama with a touch of dark humor.