Comedy,Drama
United States of America
Crimes and Misdemeanors is a 1989 comedy-drama film written and directed by Woody Allen. The film follows two paralleling storylines; the first, about the ophthalmologist, Judah Rosenthal (played by Martin Landau), and the second, about the documentary filmmaker, Cliff Stern (played by Woody Allen).
In the first storyline, Judah is a successful ophthalmologist who is married but has a long-term mistress, Dolores Paley (played by Angelica Huston). Dolores becomes increasingly unstable and threatens to reveal their affair to Judah's wife (played by Claire Bloom) unless he leaves his wife and marries her. Judah considers hiring a hitman to kill her and resolves the moral conflict he faces as he grapples with the question of right and wrong.
In the second storyline, Cliff is a struggling documentary filmmaker who is infatuated with a producer for PBS, Halley Reed (played by Mia Farrow), despite being married to his wife, Wendy (played by Joanna Gleason). Halley is also having an affair with her married boss, Lester (played by Alan Alda), but Cliff is convinced that she is the perfect woman for him. The storyline explores the nature of infatuation and unrequited love.
The film weaves together these two storylines and poses philosophical questions about morality, guilt, and human nature. Crimes and Misdemeanors received critical acclaim for its screenplay, direction, and performances, and earned Woody Allen an Academy Award nomination for Best Director.
