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Crimes and Misdemeanors
Orion Pictures

8.9 based on 10 reviews Read critic reviews How did we calculate this? based on 10 votes Read user comments Rate this movie

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MPAA RATING: PG-13

Starring Martin Landau, Anjelica Huston, Woody Allen, Alan Alda, Sam Waterston, Claire Bloom, Stephanie Roth, and Jerry Orbach

The film's title indicates the themes of two separate stories: 1) a renowned opthalmologist is desperate to cut off an adulterous relationship...which ends up in murder; and 2) an ethically frustrated documentary filmmaker woos an attractive television producer while making a film about her insufferably self-centered boss. (MGM)

GENRE(S):	Comedy  |  Drama
WRITTEN BY:	Woody Allen
DIRECTED BY:	Woody Allen
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: October 29, 1998  Video: October 21, 1992  Theatrical: October 13, 1989
RUNNING TIME:	107 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

The film was nominated for three Oscars in the categories of Best Director (Allen), Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Supporting Actor (Landau).

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

The New York Times Vincent Canby

Mr. Allen's most securely serious and funny film to date.

100

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

In this risky, riveting film, our most prolific and provocative moviemaker uses his wit to touch a nerve. Crimes and Misdemeansors is so funny it hurts.

100

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

In the world of this film, conventional piety is overturned and we see into the soul of a human monster.

88

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Staff (Not Credited)

Flagrantly flawed but never less than fascinating film that does indeed blend the funny Woody and the serious Woody.

80

The New Republic Stanley Kauffmann

It is his best and most courageous work to date. [13 Nov 1989, p. 22]

80

Time Richard Schickel

At times the joints in the movie's carpentry are strained, at times the mood swings jarring. [16 Oct 1989, p. 82]

70

TV Guide Staff (Not Credited)

Fine ensemble acting (Alda and Huston are outstanding), evocative composition and design, intelligent writing, and spritely musical score.

70

Variety Staff (Not Credited)

Alda is perfect casting as a successful TV comedy producer, whose pompous attitude and easy romantic victories with women (including Farrow) exasperate Allen.

70

Washington Post Rita Kempley

Whiny, quirky and urbane.

20

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

None of the characters or ideas is allowed to develop beyond its cardboard profile.

The average user rating for this movie is 8.9 (out of 10) based on 10 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Elliot gave it a10:
Great stuff, highly recommended.

Dan W. gave it a10:
Allen's best movie and one of the best movies ever made about Good and Evil, and one of the best movies ever made. Not for fans of dumb comedy.

[Anonymous] gave it a 10:
A terrific film.

Kirsty J. gave it a 0:
Really boring i was forced to watch it at school, and now write an essay on it!!! so im just going to rip of everything that you wrote!

Yoon Min C. gave it a 9:
Why does this work? 1. perhaps because the main character is jewish, and allen understands him better and doesn't put an artificial barrier between himself and the character. most of allen's serious films are about wasps, as though allen was saying we jews are funnylooking, silly, and ridiculous (though clever) while those wasps, while morbid and humorless, are so much more dignified and noble in thought and feeling. 'another woman'... ugh. hated it. the main character of crimes and misdemeanors is a member of the respectable community, a waspish jew, but allen feels close to him, doesn't watch him like a fascinating object but gets under his skin, reads his mind, shares his torment and contradictions, knows that they come from a tradition that bares one head while covering the other. martin balsam character is not a posterboy character like eg marshall in interiors. 2. very rare among allen movies in having genuine visual sense. as comic director allen was clever at poking fun at other movies or relied mainly on verbal wit. for his serious movies, he mostly and solemnly lifted from bergman, antonioni, fellini, and cassavetes. but, allen really uses images pointedly in c & m. for instance, when the guy goes to his mistress's apartment and finds her on the floor, the camera mutedly tilts from his face to the floor and turns to the blankface on the floor. it's a pure moment of what alexander astruc called camera stylo. we feel his fall from grace, his heart sink, his silent terror, and most horribly the sense that world has both changed completely and remains same as ever. the lingering image of dead face suggests the tension between cosmic amorality and gravity of sin. it's horrific and mundane. 3. the main character is perhaps psychologically the most complex allen has created. he reminded of the adolph menjou character in paths of glory, who was all the worse for putting on airs of moral conscience while, in effect, pulling all the strings. the eye doctor isn't quite that bad, not ENTIRELY devoid of moral conscience, but like most of us--more than most of us--, has a ingenuous way of fooling himself and others. his moralistic protestations and angst often serve to shove blame onto others or ease one's sense of guilt. so, he has his brother kill his mistress, but at the same time gripes about the immorality of it all, as though it's more his brother's fault, as though his brother goaded him into making the decision. he has cheated on his wife, embezzled funds, but he has intricate rationalizations which are just barely valid enough to justify oneself but actually make him much worse for there are few things more despicable than preening two-facedness. near the end, when he relates what he has gone thru as an idea for a movie for the woody allen character, a filmmaker, he speaks of a character--himself--who suffered tremendous moral guilt but made peace with the world thru some philosphical realization that the world doesn't care(yes, because the WORLD doesn't care). but, then the detail that the murder rap was tagged onto someone else gives the game away; his moral disgust and emotional relief after the murder had more to do with the fear of getting caught than geunine, deepseated guilt that he associates with his upbringing. not that he was consciously dishonest at every turn, but his flashbacks of the past, of his father's moral sermons were perhaps more a way to justify himself in moments of fear than genuine moral disturbance within the soul. hard facts of life encourage moral hallucinations of being either saint or sinner, when in fact, if we can get off scotfree at every turn, who cares about morality except as a piece of respectable china in the dining room cabinet? the character is a like moral zelig. he wants to be respectable in a respectable society, and even what he thinks of as his most private feelings are just rehearsals for what face he might have to put on depending on the situation. god is hairpiece we keep stashed in case we go bald. altman's player covered the same topic but as the robbins character was a total bore, it wasn't much.

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