This 1989 Woody Allen film features two separate stories that seemingly have nothing in common, running concurrently. One story features Woody as Cliff Stern, a struggling filmmaker and documentarian who hasn’t had much success in a while and is in a long and unhappy marriage to Wendy (Joanna Gleason). The only joy Cliff seems to have in his life is spending time with his niece, Jenny (Jenny Nichols), who is being raised by Cliff’s single sister, Barbara (Caroline Aaron).

Alan Alda plays Lester, Wendy’s brother, who is a wealthy and successful television producer whom Cliff can’t stand. But when a studio arranges to make a documentary about Lester’s life and work, Wendy convinces Lester to get them to hire Cliff, who is initially reluctant to do it. Mia Farrow plays Halley, a producer of the documentary, and Cliff immediately becomes smitten with her, and they get closer over the course of the filming. But when Cliff finally makes his feelings known to her, she rejects him because he’s married, despite Cliff’s claims that his marriage has been over for a long time. Cliff uses the documentary to mock Lester, showing his bad traits and even comparing him to Mussolini. When Lester screens it, he’s outraged and fires Cliff from the project, hiring someone else to do it. Halley goes away to London to get a new production job.

The 2nd plot centers around Martin Landau as Judah Rosenthal, a successful ophthalmologist who has been happily married for decades with two adult children and is considered a respectable member of the community. But he had been having an affair with a flight attendant named Dolores, played by Angelica Huston. After 2 years, he finally ended it, but Dolores won’t accept that and keeps threatening to tell his wife about their affair and also about some financial improprieties he committed at his job in the past. Terrified that he’ll lose his wife and possibly his career, and his reputation will be ruined, Judah goes to his criminal brother Jack (Jerry Orbach), who arranges to have Dolores killed. The deed gets done, and Judah is in the clear, but then he becomes overwhelmed with guilt and starts thinking about God and faith, and wonders if he’s really gotten away with it or is destined for Hell because of what he did? There are a lot of fascinating discussions about morality by multiple characters during this story.

The stories connect at the end, several months later, at a wedding of the daughter of Ben (Sam Waterston), a rabbi who is Lester and Wendy’s brother and is also a patient of Judah’s, who confided his affair (but not the murder) to Ben. In this film, he has a minor subplot, as he slowly loses his eyesight due to a medical condition, yet he never loses faith or curses what happens to him. We learn what happens to the various characters, and it’s here that Cliff and Judah meet randomly.

Either one of those stories could have been a movie all by itself. The Cliff/Halley story could have been another Woody Allen romantic comedy, and the Judah story a darker drama, but putting them together makes for a really interesting contrast. Cliff is the “good guy” in his story, while Judah is the “bad guy” in his story. Cliff is the one who ends up suffering, while Judah gets what appears to be a happy ending. It’s pretty screwed up, in a way, and goes against traditional Hollywood storytelling rules, but that’s what makes it work. That, and the performances of the cast, who are all perfect. Not a weak link in the bunch. Great film.

Chacebook rating: 5 STARS

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