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Movie: Crimes and Misdemeanors, by Woody Allen

Woody Allen film

Woody--a failed filmmaker--is breaking up with his wife and trying to take up with Mia Farrow.  His brother-in-law, Alan Alda, is a wildly successful and completely vapid film maker who also has his eye on Mia.  This is the misdemeanor plot.

The crime plot involves an opthamologist, wildly successful, who has a fling with a stewardess that develops into a two year affair.  His lover, feeling spurned, threatens to tell his wife.  Our good doctor, with much hand-wringing before and after, arranges to have her murdered.

End:  Alan Alda gets Mia and the doctor gets away with murder.  His conscience doesn't bother him as time passes.

Strengths--a film about ideas
Weaknesses--Would he really kill her? Impossible to imagine he prefers murder to confessing to his wife.

Creepiness:  Woody Allen takes his 13 year-old niece to a bunch of films.  She's alarmingly like Mia Farrow in too many ways, from hair style to love of movies.  He also tells his niece about his love life, puts his arm around her shoulder a few times.  What seemed endearing then doesn't seem very endearing now.

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