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Does the immoral lie only with your conscience?
Date of Review: Sep 16, 2000
If you could kill somebody that was threatening your happiness and get away with it, would you do it? Or, would your conscience finally catch up to you?
I have often thought that the reason that someone tells you when they have done something to hurt you is not for your benefit but theirs. They should've thought about your benefit BEFORE they did the act. But, now that it's done they feel terrible and can't stand it anymore so they tell you to make themselves feel better. Now, you both feel like crud.
Immoral acts and conscience is the theme of Crimes and Misdemeanors. Every time my husband and I watch it we end up pausing it to have a philosophical debate about wrong acts and what makes them wrong. (Or another favorite topic: if the other woman in the movie has any reason for acting like she does or if she's just a nut job.) Granted, my husband and I both have our Master's degrees in philosophy, but you don't need these degrees to enjoy this movie.
There are three worlds that collide in this movie. 1)Judah Rosenthal's world (Judah is played brilliantly by Martin Landau) of wealth, a loving family and happiness. 2) Judah's secret world of his affair (the other woman played with Fatal Attraction like intensity by Angelica Houston). 3) Cliff Stern's world (Cliff is played hilariously by Woody Allen) of failed movie making.
After Judah, a successful ophthalmologist, decides to employ his shady brother to pick off his lover because she has threatened to tell his wife (and even wrote a letter to the wife that Judah fortuitously intercepts), he goes through a period of panic and remorse. This remorse leads him to consult with one of his patients, Rabbi Ben (Sam Waterston), about what he should do. The Rabbi recommends that Judah come clean and that the wife will eventually understand if their love is a strong one. The brother that offs the lover advises Judah to keep quiet since he will be implicated if it gets out. Besides, he made it look like an accident and a vagabond who has confessed to 15 other murders has been charged with the crime.
The Rabbi's sister, (Joanna Gleason) is married to Cliff Stern and gets him a job with her brother in law Lester (played brilliantly pompously by Alan Alda). But, Cliff likes to make low budget movies about "real topics" like toxic waste and the brother in law is a famous TV producer. Cliff feels like he's selling out but takes the job for the money. (Another moral issue) Meanwhile, Cliff and his wife's marriage is not good and Cliff meets Hally Reed (Mia Farrow) who is the producer for Lester's show. Cliff falls hard for Hally who likes him but doesn't like that he's married and ends up with Lester - the antithesis of Cliff.
The three stories crash together at the wedding of Rabbi Ben's daughter and ends with Cliff talking to new friend Judah about Judah's "idea" for a movie. The now calm Judah (he doesn't confess and his conscience eventually heals) tells Cliff of his story masking it as a hypothetical one. How Cliff, the realist, reacts to the story is interesting and worth debate as well. I won't reveal that plot twist.
Allen's films are often described as tapestries of interwoven relationships and this one is no different. It is rich in detail and sub plots that will keep you thinking and hopefully discussing for some time after the movie ends.
We have it on DVD and it gets better each time we watch it.
