Here is another of those amiable, insubstantial jeux d’ésprit that Woody Allen is able to sketch out on his yellow pad almost without appearing to think about it. It’s an underpowered tongue-in-cheek mystery-comedy-suspense-thriller inspired by Dostoevsky and Patricia Highsmith, which frustratingly does not quite deliver in any of these genres, being neither very funny nor seriously suspenseful.
Joaquin Phoenix plays Abe Lucas, supposedly a philosophy professor with a reputation on campus for being a drinker, a wild man, a seducer, and a profound depressive. He begins an affair with a fellow lecturer Rita (Parker Posey) and flirts with student Jill (Emma Stone), but it’s only when Abe overhears a chance conversation in a cafe that he realises he has an opportunity to murder a stranger in an entirely righteous cause, a perfect and perfectly justifiable crime that he can easily get away with, and which will give his life meaning at last.
Crime and punishment are themes that Allen has explored before, notably in his great movie Crimes and Misdemeanors, but this is very thin stuff. One or two nice gags and a silly, twisty finale can’t bring this to life.
