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Review of Cassandra's Dream
Review: Cassandra's DreamCassandra’s Dream follows the trend of latter-day Woody Allen films started with Match Point: tight, crime-based drama, with only sparse traces of the comedies he used to make. In this mode of filmmaking, Allen’s films show more directly the influence of Ingmar Bergman and Federico Fellini that he’s often cited. This film in particular, however, shows a greater connection to Death of a Salesman, as Ewan McGregor and Colin Farrell play two brothers down on their luck: the former can’t shake his dreams of entrepreneurial success, while the latter nurses a gambling problem. Convinced that they are one lucky break away from lifetime success, the brothers turn to their wildly successful uncle (Tom Wilkinson) for a loan. Their uncle is happy to help and not “pass judgment” on their mistakes, only asking for a favor in return: kill the man set to testify against him. Whereas Match Point kept the audience in control of any moral debate, and buried Jonathan Rhys Meyers’s intentions below his cool façade, Cassandra’s Dream goes the other way and snakes through every consideration that the brothers wrestle with. Having taken time to establish the lengths to which each one of them will go to either reach for their success (McGregor) or dig themselves into failure (Farrell), Allen reveals the real drama to not be in the doing of a murder but how in the aftermath the brothers’ bond comes undone. Posted on 09/13/07 by: calmac 6 Comments
Aaron Posted on 09/13/07 
Jeff. Posted on 09/14/07 
Did you really just mention Bergman in the same breath as "Match Point"? calmac Posted on 09/15/07
*cough* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statler_&_Waldorf Aaron Posted on 09/16/07
If you think that's going to stop us you are very wrong. ADMIT IT SUCKED. Jeff. Posted on 09/18/07
HOW FAR WILL YOU GO TO MAKE YOUR DREAMS COME TRUE? THAT is the tagline for this film! *SIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGH* Barnesy Posted on 09/25/07 
Yeah -- that is an awful tag line, but don’t let it turn you off! I always thought it was Allen’s earliest dramatic work “Interiors” that was famously coined his “Bergman” Film? I think it’s hard for some people to see Woody Allen as the kind of writer/director who is capable of making a “serious” film… but he does it quite well! (I had a weird screening experience for this film -- part of the audience ‘belly-gutted’ throughout some really tense scenes because they were programmed to think “if it’s Allen, well then it’s supposed to be funny!” I really liked “Cassandra’s Dream” for some of the same reasons I loved “Match Point”; both of them are very old fashioned films by convention. If anything I think Allen is paying homage to heroes like Alfred Hitchcock and Orson Welles by giving noir a whirl! (The signs have always been there i.e.: look at the climax to the incredibly funny “Manhattan Murder Mystery” and how Allen uses “The Lady From Shanghai” to play off of the “noir-ish” elements of the plot.) “Cassandra’s Dream” has a truly solid cast, (I think Ewan McGregor is incredibly underrated and for all the tabloid brouhaha you forget when Colin Farrell is good, he can be excellent!) plus, Allen’s strong directorial sense really does justice to his narrative. (The scene where Wilkinson calls upon Farrell and McGregor to do his dirty deeds is so well done; the camera work is classic Allen, reminding me of the great lunch table sequence in “Hanna and Her Sisters.”) All in all, if you’re an (unconditional) fan of Allen’s work, you won’t be disappointed. Post a Comment
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But did you like it? Just say it sucked. I won't tell Woody.