A practice run for Woody Allen’s superior Match Point, this essentially has the same premise: an adulterer considers killing his mistress when she threatens to upend his placid domestic life. What Match Point wisely avoided, Crimes indulges in: overwrought philosophical pontificating, obvious symbolism and, most notably, the onscreen presence of Allen himself. Allen has a supporting part here, that of a struggling documentary filmmaker flailing in his attempts to escape his own stale marriage. This subplot is supposed to be the comic inversion of the central story: that of ophthalmologist Judah Rosenthal (Martin Landau), whose life is about to unravel at the hands of illicit lover Dolores (Anjelica Huston). Landau does a tragic Woody impression – he kvetches, but about such things as good, evil and the meaninglessness of life – while Allen uses the same mannerisms to riff on far more trivial topics. The performances amount to a Woody Allen double bill.
