9/30/2014

Cassandra's Dream (2007) - Allen's well-constructed but inconsequential English cul-de-sac



The slick poster for Woody Allen's Cassandra's Dream

QUICK REVIEW:

Two brothers in London get a request for help from their rich uncle: Kill a man, and I will give you the money that you need. They murder the man, and for the one brother, things go well from there ...
Writer-director master Woody Allen (Broadway Danny Rose (1984)) knows his craft, and there is no formal bumps in the road: Cassandra's Dream's great men; Tom Wilkinson (Valkyrie (2008)), Colin Farrell (Minority Report (2002)) and Ewan McGregor (The Impossible (2012)) are class actors, although the latter two seem a bit old for their characters.
The problem is that Allen just doesn't work as a storyteller of this kind of Anglo-Saxon ode of Men and Guilt. The way he teases us about the murder is top stuff, but as a the morality tale that the film aims to be, it is a misfire. And after the recent, painfully bad To Rome With Love (2012), Cassandra's Dream is probably Allen's least successful movie quality-wise, (which says a lot about how high the quality of his many films generally is.) Bottom-line; save this film for almost last, if you are delving into Allen's wonderful body of work.

Related review:

Woody AllenTo Rome With Love (2012) - Woody Allen's slightest film to date
Anything Else (2003) - Perfect contemporary relationship comedy 
Celebrity (1988) or, Beautiful Celebrities Talk About Sex (guest review)
Broadway Danny Rose (1984) or, Keep Your Heart 
Annie Hall (1977) or, My Relationship With Alvie Singer 
Bananas (1971) - Woody Allen's South American misadventure is still a barrel of laughs
Casino Royale (1967) - The packed spy spoof frontrunner, a film very much of its time (as actor)


Colin Farrell and Ewan McGregor are just brothers (unfortunately) in Woody Allen's Cassandra's Dream


Watch the trailer here

Cost: 15 mil. $
Box office: 22.5 mil. $
= Flop
[An original Philip Glass score, - which is rare for Allen, who hadn't commissioned an original score since Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex (*But Were Afraid to Ask) (1972), didn't help attract enough audiences to this almost dull movie.]

What do you think of Cassandra's Dream?
Who, on the other hand, tells a good, Anglo-Saxon morality tale?

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