Crimes & Misdemeanors

Woody Allen's Crimes and Misdemeanors is two stories that run in parallel and intersect only in the very last scene. One is centered around Judah (Martin Landau) who is at the end of a two year affair with a younger woman. She is not content to fade away without a fight and threatens to expose their affair to his wife and also bring to light his dubious financial practices. Judah decides to take action through his brother who appears to be well connected to the underworld. The other story is of Cliff Stern (Allen), a not very successful documentary film maker, who is commissioned to make a biopic on his famous brother-in-law, played by Alan Alda. In the process of making the film Cliff meets and falls for Jenny, one of the production assistants. Its all classic Allen with much pondering on relationships, life, death and morality. There are some hilarious quotes, my favorite being "Where I grew up in Brooklyn no one committed suicide, we were all too unhappy".