Crimes and Misdemeanors

After a pair of recent back-to-back lesser efforts (September, Another Woman), Woody Allen returns with what may be his most successful wedding of comedy and tragedy to date. Judah Rosenthal (Martin Landau) is a successful optician whose philanthropic works have made him a hero in the community. But Judah has a dark side--a clandestine affair that after two years is threatening to become public knowledge. The mistress, Dolores Paley (Anjelica Huston), has decided to blow the horn unless he agrees to divorce his wife and marry her. Under pressure from all sides, Judah does a terrible deed--he "allows" his brother Jack to arrange for Dolores' demise. In the wake of her murder, Judah finds himself wracked with guilt. On the lighter side, there is also the story of Cliff Stern (Allen), a documentary filmmaker who loathes his successful brother-in-law Lester (Alan Alda), but agrees to make a PBS documentary about the egotistical TV exec with a string of hit sitcoms to his dubious credit. While working on the film, Cliff meets Halley Reed (Mia Farrow), a dedicated public television producer who captures Cliff's wed, but wandering, heart, as well as that of Lester, the playboy bachelor. Although the two moral fables intersect only once, at the film's conclusion, Allen deftly provokes our religious, philosophical, and ethical convictions with this extremely entertaining commentary on the foibles of humankind--both large and small. Highly recommended. (R. Pitman)