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Movies / On DVD / Cassandra's Dream
Cassandra's Dream

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Cassandra's Dream (2008)

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Reviews Counted:113

Fresh:52

Rotten:61

Average Rating:5.7/10

Consensus: Colin Farrell and Tom Wilkinson act up a storm in Cassandra's Dream, but Woody Allen's heavy-handed symbolism and foreshadowing drains the plot of all tension.

Rated: 12A [See Full Rating] for thematic elements, some sexual material and brief violence.

Runtime: 1 hr 48 mins

Genre: Dramas

Theatrical Release:23-05-2008

Synopsis: Woody Allen wrote and directed this London-set feature, a modern noir with black comic trimmings. Colin Farrell and Ewan McGregor play working class brothers who dream of better things than their... Woody Allen wrote and directed this London-set feature, a modern noir with black comic trimmings. Colin Farrell and Ewan McGregor play working class brothers who dream of better things than their respective mechanic and restaurant jobs. Hard-drinking Terry (Farrell) has a weakness for gambling, while brother Ian (McGregor) hankers for the finer things when he starts dating a very ambitious actress (Hayley Atwell). Fate deals a hand when their rich American uncle (Tom Wilkinson) slinks into London with a murderous proposition. Named for the boat the lads buy during a rare flush moment--a symbol of the morally compromising power of money and the inevitability, perhaps, of fate--CASSANDRA'S DREAM is another of Allen's loving looks at moneyed urbanites and their penchant for living out Greek tragedy, a la MATCH POINT and CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS. This time around, it's a bit darker, but with Farrell and McGregor in the leads, there's plenty of star power. The lads are clearly having a ball acting under Allen's direction, and they're allowed to develop a charming, rapid-fire fraternal rapport that carries the film--along with Wilkinson's old-school gravitas and Atwell's luminous charisma. Phillip Glass composed the score. [More]

Starring: Ewan McGregor, Colin Farrell, Tom Wilkinson, Sally Hawkins

Starring: Ewan McGregor, Colin Farrell, Tom Wilkinson, Sally Hawkins, Hayley Atwell

Director: Woody Allen

Director: Woody Allen
Screenwriter: Woody Allen
Producer: Letty Aronson, Stephen Tenenbaum, Gareth Wiley
Composer: Philip Glass
Studio: Weinstein Company

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Reviews for Cassandra's Dream

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1 - 20 (sorted by comments; UK critics are listed first)
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A clumsy, clichéd morality play that may actually represent the lowest point of Allen’s recently chequered career.

Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | comment Comment
10/18/08
Damon Wise
Damon Wise
Empire Magazine
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

If there is a black comedy hiding deep within the folds of this tragic tale, it is so subtly dissimulated that very few will ever manage to unveil it.

Full Review Source: Screen International | comment Comment
09/15/07
Dan Fainaru
Dan Fainaru
Screen International

Disappointing, badly overwritten drama from Woody Allen, rendered almost unwatchable by dreadful Cockney accents from McGregor and Farrell.

Full Review Source: ViewLondon | comment Comment
10/18/08
Matthew Turner
Matthew Turner
ViewLondon

The film stumbles in its convenient, obvious plot turns, even if much of this is meaningfully thought-provoking.

Full Review Source: Shadows on the Wall | comment Comment
05/22/08
Rich Cline
Rich Cline
Shadows on the Wall

Woody Allen still insists on making movies at the rate of one a year, but he clearly needs to slow down. A lot.

Full Review Source: Guardian [UK] | comment Comment
10/18/08
Steve Rose
Steve Rose
Guardian [UK]
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

What the hell was Woody Allen thinking?

Full Review Source: New York Magazine | comment 3 Comments
12/17/07
Sara Cardace
Sara Cardace
New York Magazine

Woody Allen's style here is expressly Hitchcockian. The tensions mounted and the ability of the narrative to focus on particular elements that end up meaning nothing put this film in league with the master of suspense.

Full Review Source: HollywoodChicago.com | comment 1 Comment
01/18/08
Adam Fendelman
Adam Fendelman
HollywoodChicago.com

If the condescending Allen doesn't offer a context for Ian and Terry's behavior it's because he feels covetousness is a given for the lower-class, and so Cassandra's Dream is simply content reprimanding the brothers for not knowing their place.

Full Review Source: Slant Magazine | comment 1 Comment
01/13/08
Ed Gonzalez
Ed Gonzalez
Slant Magazine

Scottish McGregor and Irish Farrell are not convincing as Brit siblings in Allen's pyschological thriller, which lacks irony or depth and can't decide how it wants to be taken by the audience, as melodrama, crimer, or serio-comic critique?

Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com | comment 1 Comment
12/07/07
Emanuel Levy
Emanuel Levy
EmanuelLevy.Com

This is archly contrived nail-biter territory and an almost giddy strain on our nerves as Allen moves his hapless heroes from bad to far worse.

Full Review Source: Cinema Signals | comment 1 Comment
11/08/07
Jules Brenner
Jules Brenner
Cinema Signals
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch | comment Comment
10/18/08
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution | comment Comment
10/18/08
Atlanta Journal-Constitution

While Allen's Match Point was an interesting switching of gears ... his new mantle of Patricia Highsmith-esque crime chronicler is wearing thin as well.

Full Review Source: MSNBC | comment Comment
05/01/08
Alonso Duralde
Alonso Duralde
MSNBC

If Frida Kahlo can paint 55 self-portraits, Woody Allen can make several versions of the same movie. It's only fair.

Full Review Source: Houston Chronicle | comment Comment
01/18/08
Amy Biancolli
Amy Biancolli
Houston Chronicle

McGregor and Farrell deepen this slight thriller into a film that feels almost grandly philosophical, even though you know that when the lights come on, the spell will break

Full Review Source: I.E. Weekly | comment Comment
01/29/08
Amy Nicholson
Amy Nicholson
I.E. Weekly

written with an archly intellectual perspective, but brought to poignant life by the actors

Full Review Source: Killer Movie Reviews | comment Comment
01/17/08
Andrea Chase
Andrea Chase
Killer Movie Reviews

Like Match Point, [it] seems very sharp and focused; for better or worse, it lacks the tangents that both lightened up and diffused the tone in Scoop. That also means that there's not a moment of humor in it.

Full Review Source: Los Angeles CityBeat | comment Comment
02/07/08
Andy Klein
Andy Klein
Los Angeles CityBeat

It’s wearying to watch Allen’s murder obsession when he doesn’t know how to dramatize morality.

Full Review Source: New York Press | comment Comment
01/16/08
Armond White
Armond White
New York Press

CASSANDRA'S DREAM is a slow moving character thriller, that isn't always surprising, but for me was very involving. Woody has done it again!

Full Review Source: Sin Magazine | comment Comment
07/22/08
Austin Kennedy
Austin Kennedy
Sin Magazine

Trying to balance the demands of his well-meaning motives with the requirements of the genre leaves Allen unsettled and ineffective, two words that encompass the creative drought evident in Cassandra's Dream.

Full Review Source: PopMatters | comment Comment
01/17/08
Bill Gibron
Bill Gibron
PopMatters
 
 
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