Many critics and writers did not overlook Woody Allen's use – or abuse – of vision as a metaphor for moral insight and blindness in Crimes and Misdemeanors. As Mary Erler, associate professor of English at Fordham University, wrote in the Sunday New York Times:

Allen's oversimplification of such profound moral and philosophical questions certainly deserves some of Erler's criticism. Nevertheless, in spite of Allen's questionable development of this metaphor, the treatment of moral vision in Crimes and Misdemeanors requires further comment. Fortunately, Allen's directorial ingenuity and visual creativity in this film are not restricted to this cliché of vision and moral prescience and blindness. Allen goes beyond this metaphor to make another breakthrough movie, a film that includes humor but successfully emphasizes interior consciousness and moral ambiguity.