Cassandra’s Dream (2007) is a suspense film directed by Woody Allen in the UK, starring Ewan McGregor and Colin Farrell. It was released in 2007 in Europe and in January 2008 in the U.S.
The film involves British brothers Terry (Farrell) and Ian (McGregor), who live in South London. They were raised by a weak father (John Benfield) who runs a restaurant, and a strong mother (Clare Higgins) who taught her sons to look up to their uncle Howard (Tom Wilkinson), a successful businessman.
Both brothers decide to buy a sailboat which they name Cassandra’s Dream, after the dog that won the race in which Terry earned the money to buy the boat.
After a day sailing with their current girlfriends and while driving back home in a borrowed Jaguar, Ian crosses paths with beautiful actress Angela Stark (Hayley Atwell), with whom he falls in love.
The brothers’ financial difficulties — Terry has a gambling problem, while Ian wishes to invest in hotels in California — lead them to think about asking for Howard’s help. Uncle Howard supposedly comes to London to celebrate his sister’s birthday, but when the two brothers ask for his financial help, he reveals a more sinister motive. He admits that he is about to go to jail due to accusations coming from Martin Burns, a business partner who plans to testify against him, and asks his two nephews if they can help to get rid of him. After initial reluctance, the two brothers agree.
Even in middling form, Woody Allen still knows how to get a few licks in. Set in London, which energized his Match Point in 2005, Cassandra’s Dream finds the Woodman mucking about in the moral quicksand of one of his best films, 1989’s Crimes and Misdemeanors. Two Cockney brothers, Ian (Ewan McGregor) and Terry (Colin Farrell), are contemplating murder. Ian wants to dump the restaurant he runs with dear old dad and take off for Hollywood with wanna-be actress Angela (Hayley Atwell, a pale shadow in the role Scarlett Johansson played to an erotic turn in Match Point). Terry bought a boat, Cassandra’s Dream, with his winnings from a dog race, but now he’s back in debt, and loan sharks are advancing on his ass looking for payback he can’t squeeze out of his earnings as a mechanic. Enter rich old Uncle Howard (the reliably flawless Tom Wilkinson) with a deal: If the boys will off his business enemy, Martin Burns (Phil Davis), they’ll have enough money to follow their dreams. McGregor and especially Farrell bring genuine emotional commitment to their roles, especially on a long walk where they convince themselves that the unthinkable is doable. But Allen, who stays behind the camera, brings too little wit and too much contrivance to material that quickly dissolves into warmed-over Dostoevski.
Written by Luca Aquilanti
