Cassandra’s Dream

Cassandra’s Dream, which is the title of the film and the name of a boat in same, finds Woody Allen in top form but channeling a Claude Chabrol style mystery thriller rather than relying on his stock comic mayhem. At the head of the tony cast are Ewan McGregor and Colin Farrell as brothers who get involved in a crime when each, for either gambling or living the life of a playboy, finds himself consumed with debt.
Perhaps not oddly Cassandra’s Dream finds itself thrown out in limited venues (here CD is playing exclusively at the Angelika downtown) where audiences aware of Allen may seek it out but if you told the average bear it was an above average Euro thriller they might believe you, and you wouldn’t be far off the mark. The story also bears similarities to the dilemma of the brothers in Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead. The Sopranos ending aside, the Coen Brothers have been racking up acclaim for not actually showing the murder of the central protag and wrapping things up in the most ambiguous manner possible, but that’s exactly what the Woodman delivers. Only Woody is somehow more subdued and has a firm grasp on the illogic of the whole enterprise.
When Ian (McGregor) falls for an actress, her own star on the rise and high maintenance to boot, and Terry (Farrell) loses the equivalent of a couple of years salary in a high stakes card game they seek a perilous solution. Rich uncle (Tom Wilkinson) wants them to kill a business associate whose testimony could ruin him. Cassandra’s Dream charts the course of the brother’s guilt, with one shining it on and the other plunging into drink to try to forget. Farrelll and McGregor are spot on with their performances, gone are the smug traces of their personality that leaks out of some of their glossier roles. The movie starts out like a cheerful journey in a small dingy only to end up being tossed on a perfect storm of human avarice.
Good stuff, don’t miss out on this thriller even though CD won’t get one-tenth the publicity as the current Oscar crop. How time moves that now Woody Allen films are treated like the dross of the art house circuit. Where are the years when lighter Allen vehicles than Cassandra's Dream were front and center at awards derbies?