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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: PG-13 [See Full Rating] for thematic elements, some sexual material and brief violence.
Runtime: 1 hr 48 mins
Genre: Dramas
Theatrical Release:Jan 18, 2008 Limited
Box Office: $871,646
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
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.
It’s wearying to watch Allen’s murder obsession when he doesn’t know how to dramatize morality.
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.
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.
Cassandra's Dream lacks energy and spark. Monotonous and simplistic, it is definitely not worthy of Woody Allen.
Allen's writing here is so lacking in vigor and purpose that much of the film seems to be on nothing more than autopilot, a faded and tissue-paper-thin retread from a filmmaker who should know 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.
Funny thing about tragedy: It loses its heft when it has to keep reminding us how tragic it is. It's hard to cozy up to a script that feels the need to toss in casual references to fate and Aristotle. Yo, we get it already. They're doomed.
Nearing the end of his career, Woody Allen has become a hit-or-miss director with considerably more misses.
A clumsy, clichéd morality play that may actually represent the lowest point of Allen’s recently chequered career.
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.
These characters not only don't talk like working-class Londoners, they don't talk like anyone.
For those who remember [his Allen's classic films] Cassandra's Dream seems like the work of an imposter.
It’s admittedly better than some of Allen’s DOA comedies of the past decade. To think that his weak attempt at a morality play represents some return to form, however, is a pipe dream.
Are we supposed to be charmed, or shocked, by this? Allen doesn't seem to know.
Like a tragic overture played at the wrong tempo and slightly off-key, Woody Allen's London-set Cassandra's Dream sends out more mixed signals than an inebriated telegraphist.
Although McGregor and Farrell produce some occasionally spirited moments, particularly in the earlier scenes, they are little more than walking and talking schemes, their choices based entirely on socioeconomic impulses.
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