A World Without God

Crimes and Misdemeanors is, by far, Woody Allen's most ambitious film. It is at once, moving and chilling.

The film tells two parallel stories. In one Woody Allen plays a small time documentary film maker trapped in a loveless marriage.
He finds himself falling for a beautiful young woman played by Mia Farrow (Husbands and Wives). She, however, does not love him. She chooses a pompous, simple minded, sleazy TV executive over woody. The sleazoid is played to perfection by Alan Alda, giving us a cold contrast to his well loved character from M*A*S*H. woody is crushed.

In the other story Martin Landau (Ed Wood) plays a wealthy eye doctor who has been having an affair with a beautiful stewardess, played wonderfully by Angelica Huston (The Grifters). When he wants to end the affair she refuses.
Frightened of losing his wife, and his standing in the community he enlists the help of his mob connected brother (Jerry Orbach) to deal with the problem.
Dealing with the problem, of course, means murder. In most movies the good doctor would either be caught, or be eaten alive by guilt. Not in this film. He gets away clean, and after a time his guilt begins to fade. He continues with his comfortable, affluent life. Nothing has changed.

Watching the film I wondered how these two stories were connected. I kept looking for the moment when they would match up, when the strings tying them together would become visible. They don't.

It is only at the end that one realizes that the connection between these stories is simply that they are both beautifully illustrative of a world without God. In a fair, balanced universe these things could not happen. In this universe, Woody tells us, they happen every day.

Allen is really better known for his comedies, such as Sleeper, Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Sex, But Were Afraid to Ask, and Mighty Aphrodite. However, when he turns his hand to drama he does so with a deft, and artful touch.

Crimes and Misdemeanors is one of the best films of the Eighties, and truly the height of Allen's achievement.