By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.9
Director: Woody Allen
Starring: Colin Farrell | Ewan McGregor | Hayley Atwell | Peter-Hugo Daly | Philip Davis | Sally Hawkins | Tom Wilkinson
Country: united_kingdom, united_states
Year: 2008
Running time: 108
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0795493/
Jason says: “Woody Allen is a bitter old man, and has been for a while. As a young man, he looked at the world around him and laughed at the absurdity, but for the past decade or two his movies have all seemed to be about people being slapped down for daring to dream above their station. It’s a bleak world-view, and CASSANDRA’S DREAM is the latest expression of it.
“This year’s poor fools are brothers Ian (Ewan McGregor) and Terry (Colin Farrell); as the film opens, they’re buying a boat that stretches their budget. Ian is smart but stuck managing the business of their father’s restaurant due to Dad’s ill health; Terry is a mechanic with a gambling problem. A run of good luck for Terry pays for the boat, but soon his luck changes. Ian, meanwhile, is misrepresenting himself to a pretty actress (Hayley Atwell). How can Terry get out of debt and Ian invest in the California resort he’s planning? Well, they do have a rich uncle Howard (Tom Wilkinson), who just happens to need a favor: If Martin Burns (Philip Davis) testifies in an investigation into Howard’s business dealings, he’ll be ruined. If only some desperate men could remove him.
“That’s not a bad story, and CASSANDRA’S DREAM isn’t a bad movie. It’s also not a very active movie; it spends a long first act setting up a situation where Ian and Terry need money and much of the rest on hand-wringing. A good chunk of the film’s second half is Terry saying he doesn’t feel good about this and Ian replying they have no choice, getting progressively louder and more insistent as the film continues. The mechanics of the story are rather straightforward, making for a rather mild thriller.
“It does work better as a character piece. None of the characters are exactly complicated, but the cast pours everything they can into their roles. Colin Farrell makes for a likable working stiff; his Terry is a flawed character who manages to avoid becoming too much an object of pity or disdain. McGregor doesn’t get to play quite so broad a range of emotions, but does convey the feeling of being trapped, if often in a box of his own making. Wilkinson’s Howard is a more desperate devil than usually makes these deals, but he’s pretty good; we believe he’s vulnerable to Burns’s accusations but also powerful enough to have Terry and Ian cowed. Hayley Atwell and Sally Hawkins are nice complements as Kate and Angela, the women in their lives. John Benfield and Clare Higgins are an appropriately abrasive team as their parents, who strongly disagree on the subject of Howard.
“That’s all to be expected; if Woody Allen has had one consistent skill over the years, it’s getting good performances out of his cast. It’s the writing that comes up short here. A trailer for this movie comes very close to telling the whole story, and as good as the cast is at making the characters feel like real people, they’re real people whose trajectories are all too predictable. The details we see often aren’t that interesting, either – when we see Terry lose at poker or Ian grow jealous of Angela, it’s just what they do, rather than a case where the way they do it gives us some insight into their particular characters. And maybe I’ve grown too sensitive to (and not fond of) Allen’s recently-recurrent theme of being happy with what you have and where you are, but he hammers it pretty incessantly.
“None of this really makes CASSANDRA’S DREAM a bad movie, but it’s far from an exceptional one. Woody Allen is in a rut, and I really wish he could get out of it. Nearly 3 cats
“Seen 20 January 2008 at Landmark Kendall Square #2 (first-run)”
Thom says: ” I found CASSANDRA’S DREAM a thoughtful & deeply moral film that carries a lot of weight. I’d be lying if I said I’ve never been a fan of Woody Allen for from early to mid-career I saw everything he directed. Then came the infamously wretched SHADOWS & FOG & realizing he was not infallible. I did love MANHATTAN MURDER MYSTERY & BULLETS OVER BROADWAY after that, but then his decline began in earnest. Mainly it was the absurdity of him starring in his own films in a romantic way. I tried to remain indifferent towards his contretemps with Mia Farrow but he was going out of his way to show what a lovable character he was & it came off as annoying, trite, & unconvincing. Nonetheless, once he decided to veer off in a different vein, starting with MELINDA & MELINDA, & continuing with MATCH POINT, SCOOP, & CASSANDRA’S DREAM, I think he has successfully reinvented himself. That he has, in the last three of these, given his concentration to murder, his profound ethical stand against it, while not particularly new (think CRIMES & MISDEMEANORS) is still bravura. In the time of an embracing of violence as a certain poetry (THE DEPARTED, NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, THERE WILL BE BLOOD, etc.) garnering many accolades, I think he has shown us its intrinsic evil. I give CASSANDRA’S dream 4.5 CATS! This certainly is the best acting job from beautiful Colin Farrell I’ve seen & Tom Wilkinson & Ewan McGregor were both perfect.”