Crimes and Misdemeanors did it better

Woody already brilliantly explored the territory of morality, murder and conscience, in Crimes and Misdemeanors. This film-Crimes- is one of his best, in my opinion, and actually one of my favorite films of all time.

Why make a movie dealing with the same themes-only set it in another country; extract mediocre performances from mediocre actors (aside from Tom Wilkinson, who is always great); and inspire absolutely no sympathy for the main characters for the bind they've gotten themselves into?

Crimes was set in New York, and nobody does New York better than Woody. He tries to capture the feeling of other places, but it just falls flat. Crimes presented masterly performances all around, especially by Martin Landau and Anjelica Houston. And the viewer finds compassion for the flawed character Landau plays-in spite of his philandering, which allows this crisis to exist in the first place (as his mistress threatens to expose their affair to his wife), and in spite of the tragic choices he makes to extricate himself.

And to boot, somehow Woody merges in this movie both a comic storyline, and a love story, and they all work. (Alan Alda as egomaniacal producer: "If it BENDS, it's funny. If it BREAKS, it's not").

Anyway wish Woody would make another New York movie again, one that has even 1/10th of the masterly brilliance he's shown before.