No Match for "Crimes and Misdemeanors"

Rating: 2/10 (20 January 2006)

Most of us don't grant Woody the gift of our attention and expect to be rewarded with facile nihilism. Nihilism has its place, but not in some comic book version of Sophocles.
This may be Woody's worst film since "Interiors." Woody seems to loath his own talent for Comedy, so he strains for significance by begging to sit at the adult table of Tragedy.
"Crimes and Misdemeanors" succeeded far better with the same themes, in part because Woody still respected the expectations of his audience. "Match Point" is all about the so-called artist, not much about the rest of us. "C&M" explored moral ambiguity that engaged the viewer in a dialog. "MP" dashes any subtlety in favor of Moral Pronouncements. Worst of all, Woody lectures the audience like school children.
I suspect the reason Allen bangs the gong of nihilism so loudly is to distract us from the holes in his tidy plot. =SPOILER ALERT= Who can believe that Nola's diary did not mention her pregnancy? Wouldn't the police conduct a DNA test on the embryo? Case closed.
Five more minutes at the writer's desk: what if Nola had lied about being pregnant? Hmmm. Ah, but that kind of layered characterization and nuance of plot is not exercised by Woody Allen. He's content to borrow freely from "A Place in the Sun" and not strain too hard on his holiday in the UK.