Review of Cassandra's Dream (2007) by Amanda J — 15 Apr 2009

I don't like Woody Allen films, but I seem to keep watching them because he often works with my favourite actors. But alas, it's never any different, as Cassandra's Dream once again proves.

Colin Farrell and Ewan McGregor play brothers hired by their uncle to kill a business associate. Most of the movie features the brothers, different as night and day, hemming and hawing about whether or not they can do such a deed, should they do it, how they would do it, and so on.

McGregor, a confident and ambitious investor, takes charge with the plan, while Farrell, a mechanic with a gambling problem, is reluctant, even though he could use the money. The cast is rounded out with Tom Wilkinson as the uncle, Sally Hawkins and Hayley Atwell as the brothers' girlfriends.

Wilkinson's character is despicable and obviously integral to the plot, but only appears in a few scenes. The girlfriends, meanwhile, appear regularly and are quite appealing, but they have no bearing on the story whatsoever.

Go figure. Allen's visual and writing style continued to get on my nerves, as they have in all of his previous films I've seen, particularly his refusal to shoot close-ups and his tendency to overwrite dialogue and come up with ridiculous plot points.

The complete cop out of an ending was particularly troublesome, as I was almost ready to embrace this movie, until those final scenes where the whole thing fell apart. A story editor would do a great deal of good for Allen's scripts.

Whatever, he must have his fans somewhere, as he's been making these movies the same way for decades and people keep coming back to see them. I just don't plan on being one of them. Really this time, I'm done.