A clumsy, clichéd morality play that may actually represent the lowest point of Allen’s recently chequered career.
Cassandra's Dream (2008)
Tomatometer
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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
Reviews for Cassandra's Dream
Woody Allen still insists on making movies at the rate of one a year, but he clearly needs to slow down. A lot.
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.
The film stumbles in its convenient, obvious plot turns, even if much of this is meaningfully thought-provoking.
Disappointing, badly overwritten drama from Woody Allen, rendered almost unwatchable by dreadful Cockney accents from McGregor and Farrell.
A clutch of disturbingly weak performances stumbling over uncharacteristically terrible dialogue.
If you must see only one film about a family's downward spiral into despair, it probably should be Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, not Cassandra's Dream.
Every Woody Allen movie becomes an occasion to discuss what went wrong with Woody Allen movies. My own theory is that Allen simply became too efficient at getting his movies made %u2014 he works quickly and cheaply and he never has to convince his backers
At this point, I guess we should just applaud Allen for his work ethic.
Cassandra's Dream feels rote and inauthentic. Like so many late-period Allens, it leaves behind the feeling that he's made this movie before, but better.
Allen's latest, his 42nd effort as a director, is the work of an artist devoid of ideas and energy. Perfunctorily staged and lazily written, it comes to life in only the briefest of spurts, usually when the ever-reliable Tom Wilkinson is on-screen.
The latest London-based Woody Allen movie is marked by Colin Farrell's best performance in years, and a sluggish, predictable script that covers some familiar crimes and misdemeanors.
Allen's storytelling is crisper here than it has been all decade, even if he's making shadow puppets out of the forewarnings.
Did Woody Allen kill somebody once? Could somebody check and make sure Tony Roberts is OK?
After making his best and smoothest drama (Match Point) in England, Woody Allen returns there for one of his most clueless and awkward.
The identical premise is used in Sidney Lumet's Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, which is like a master class in how Allen goes wrong.
The problem is, you don’t feel the human sweat and strain in Cassandra’s Dream, despite game work from Farrell and McGregor. There are plenty of ideas and themes and no people of distinctive interest to enliven them.
Allen has often been intrigued by the convolutions an ordinary person undergoes when faced with becoming a murderer.
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