History Film / CrimesAndMisdemeanors

* HiddenDepths: For all his shallowness, Lester can finish the poem quoted.

* HeelRealization: Judah. Subverted in that [[IAmAMonster he learns he can live quite comfortably with his deeds]].

* VillainWithGoodPublicity: Judah hired a hitman to get rid of his mistress and probably embezzled money from the charity that he ran to cover his own debts. Judah keeps his dark side well-hidden, so he's adored by his family and remains highly respected by his colleagues and local community.

** Almost all interactions between Judah and Jack. Jack bluntly declares that Judah only calls him when Judah needs some dirty work done.

* DoingItForTheArt: [[invoked]] [[InUniverse Cliff]]. His wife Wendy urges him to use his filmmaking talents for greater financial gain and peer recognition. To that end, she arranges for her brother Lester to get profiled by Cliff.

* IntergenerationalFriendship: Cliff's niece seems to be one of the few people in his life who likes and respects him.

* LoserProtagonist: Or rather, since the film focuses on two barely-connected plots and protagonists, loser Deuteragonist in the case of Cliff.

** Lester outright tells Cliff that he only is hiring Cliff out of pity and as a favor to his sister.

* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:Woody's favorite documentary subject, a professor who seems to have a sunny outlook on life, kills himself. Cliff is especially depressed about his suicide note: "I've gone out the window."]]

** Lester outright tells Cliff that he only is hiring Cliff out of pity.

The film follows [[TwoLinesNoWaiting two stories]]: the "A" story (the Crime) is about Judah Rosenthal (Creator/MartinLandau), a successful opthamologist and active philanthropist, struggling to break free of a mistress who wants him to leave his family for her. The "B" story (the Misdemeanor) is about Cliff Stern (Allen), a documentary filmmaker who finds popular culture and materialism repellent. Rosenthal is forced to make a fateful decision by his insistent mistress [[MeaningfulName Dolores]] (Creator/AnjelicaHuston), while Stern, hopeful to complete his masterwork, agrees to profile his brother-in-law Lester (Creator/AlanAlda), a wealthy and successful television producer Stern considers shallow and crass, and finds himself falling for Lester's assistant Halley (Creator/MiaFarrow).

* BlackSheep: Jack with his mafia connections and various legal/financial troubles is clearly this to his family, especially when compared to the successful, high class Judah.

* ARareSentence:
--> '''Cliff''': A strange man... [[spoiler:defecated on my sister.]]

* BodyMotifs: The eyes. Judah's father, a religious man, was fond of saying that "The eyes of God are on us always" when Judah was a boy. Judah grew up and became an opthamologist. Judah's rabbi went blind right about the same time [[spoiler: Judah had Dolores killed]]. When Judah [[spoiler: visited the scene of the crime, he found Dolores dead but with her eyes still open. He took a moment to close them.]]

* DeadpanSnarker: Cliff, like most of Creator/WoodyAllen 's alter ego characters.

* JerkassHasAPoint: While Lester is indeed an arrogant and narcissistic egotist, he's also spot-on when he calls Cliff a loser and says that he needs to grow up. Cliff's attitude has made it all but impossible for him to be gainfully employed.

* OminousLegalPhraseTitle: From the use of the term in US impeachment proceedings.

* SillyRabbitIdealismIsForKids: The CentralTheme of the film, and basically what Judah tells Cliff when Cliff suggests a HappyEnding for the "story" Judah tells him (which he doesn't know is actually a ''confession''.)