Good start, but then it gets ruined

best movie i've ever seen.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Woody Allen is annoying as usual, playing a Kafka-inspired role set in Germany or Central Europe in the early twentieth century. (Electric light is commonplace, but no automobile is ever seen) Allen's shtick was original and amusing in the early Seventies, but it palled many decades ago. The plot is fairly boring, and never really ties together very well. There is a sort of "all-star cast" that is largely wasted. And the film (and plot) had no real ending, it just kind of quit. However, there were some good things. The mood was set very well with the fog, the black-and-white photography, the music. Nice performances from some of the cast, especially Mia Farrow, John Cusack, John Malkovich, and even the much-maligned Madonna. Some of Allen's direction was effective, such as the 360 shot around the table at the brothel. But overall, the film was boring, and I cannot recommend it.

Bookkeeper Kleinman (Woody Allen) is awakened by a vigilante mob with a plan to catch a serial strangler who always strikes during foggy nights. He goes to the morgue to ask the doctor (Donald Pleasence) about the plan. After he leaves, the doctor is killed by the strangler and he fears a glass will point to him.In a traveling circus, sword swallower Irmy (Mia Farrow) discusses leaving with her clown boyfriend Paul (John Malkovich). She catches him cheating on her with tightrope artist Marie (Madonna). Irmy runs away and is taken in by prostitutes (Lily Tomlin, Jodie Foster, Kathy Bates). Jack (John Cusack) pay her $700, an outrageous sum, to sleep with her. The police raids the whorehouse and they are brought to the station where Kleinman steals the glass.This is a meandering tale. Its black-and-white style points to the old German silent movies. It's stock full of big actors in small roles. It has bits of funny moments, mostly Woody with Mia. Woody is playing around with the style. There is no murder mystery since the killer's face is shown. It doesn't make for a compelling story but it's an interesting exercise nevertheless.

With a serial strangler on the loose, a bookkeeper wanders around town searching for the vigilante group intent on catching the killer.For Woody Allen, this film was intended to work off of the German expressionism of such 1920s greats as Murnau and Pabst. Although he chose not to make a silent film, he definitely made every effort to keep the "shadows and fog" in black and white. One scene of the Strangler coming out of the fog is a clear homage to "Nosferatu".The casting is fantastic, with some Woody regulars (Mia Farrow) and some unexpected performances from the likes of John Cusack. Although it seems blasphemous to say so, Cusack far outshines many of his co-stars, and yet this is not considered one of his best roles.Gene Siskel apparently named this one of the worst films of the year. Well, one hopes he lived to regret that choice, as he seems to be in the minority. Ebert, for his part, seemed to go along with Siskel to a point, suggesting that viewers could just rent "M" or "Nosferatu" instead.

Shadows and Fog is a movie that I really want to like. Its in black and white, the cast is fantastic, and the initial conceit of bumbling Woody Allen being tasked with tracking down a murderer and not being told what he's supposed to do make it seem quite compelling. I also get that this is a homage to German Expressionism. The problem is that the whole thing just gets bogged down under too many characters, shallow explorations of love, infidelity, murder, 19th century antisemitism, and lots of other ideas that sort of get brought up and then forgotten. If you like Woody Allen, then you may just enjoy this movie as an exercise in how Woody Allen's mind works, but its just too rough to be recommended.