Cassandra's Dream (2007)

	Directed by: Woody Allen	COUNTRY USA/UK GENRE Crime/Drama/Mystery NORWEGIAN TITLE Cassandra's Dream RUNNING TIME 108 minutes
	Produced by: Letty Aronson Stephen Tenenbaum Gareth Wiley
	Written by: Woody Allen

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Ian	Ewan McGregor
Terry	Colin Farrell	½
Uncle Howard	Tom Wilkinson
Father	John Benfield	½
Mother	Clare Higgins
Lucy	Ashley Madewke
Kate	Sally Hawkins	½
Martin Burns	Philip Davies
Angela Stark	Hayley Atwell

Review

Woody Allen's later works resemble some of the films Hitchcock made that aren't quite considered among his masterpieces, such as Rope, Dial M for Murder, or even Frenzy – they have many of the same strengths and weaknesses and largely discuss similar issues. Cassandra's Dream is another example of Allen's growing fascination with the crime genre – and Britain.

As with Match Point, the film is set in England. The difference is that this time the focus is on working-class people. This may feel refreshing for an Allen movie, but don't for one second believe that the characters in Cassandra's Dream are more rooted in England circa 2007 than in Allen's already well-established universe. The same problems appear here that were apparent with Match Point: dated dialogue, staged scenarios, and faltering technicalities. Still, once you have forgotten about the first, stepped into the confines of the second, and learned to overlook the third, Allen once again presents brilliantly beguiling intrigues, a well of suspense, and some quite potent moral discussions.

Ewan McGregor and Colin Farrell play two brothers with similar life situations but different aspirations. The former is a dreamer who desperately wants to be a big fish; the latter is a gambler with a knack for getting himself into trouble. Together they are asked to do their wealthy uncle (the ever-brilliant Tom Wilkinson) a life-altering favour after having requested substantial sums of money from him.

Woody Allen once again demonstrates his delicate ability to pen stories full of intrigue and different points of view. In its best scenes, Cassandra's Dream has a Hitchcockian quality, but this is not a consistent trait. Unfortunately, haste still makes waste, and in some of the more straightforward everyday scenes, it seems Allen didn't have time to conclude them before moving on to the next. This affects the overall impression of the film, but it doesn't diminish the strong character drama involved. McGregor and Farrell play well off each other, both displaying an interesting development – in differing directions – before the film's ending leaves us with an adequate feeling of ambivalence.