Cassandra's Dream (12A.)
Directed by Woody Allen.
Starring Ewan McGregor, Colin Farrell, Hayley Atwell, Sally Hawkins, Tom Wilkinson, Phil Davis. 108 mins
Those Woody Allen rankings in full: possibly the greatest comedy writers of the 20th Century; one of the great screen performers; among the best stand up comics of all time; a fair to middling film director and surely one of the worst dramatist to ever regularly persuade to people to perform his works.
Without the funny lines all you are left with is the work of an adolescent who’s just read a few big books and come up with a few big but unoriginal insights into life. Characters have to spell out exactly what they are thinking because otherwise you’d never guess. (During the times when there isn’t any dialogue, the movie briefly becomes OK.)
I always try to avoid spoilers here but as Allen is basically having yet another go at rewriting Crime and Punishment any regular Woody viewer is going to know where we’re going with a 90% degree of certainty. McGregor and Farrell are brothers who each fall in to money trouble and then their rich uncle Howard (Wilkinson) pops in to offer them a way out.
It’s amazing how he’s kept his clout. There’s a top cast, all working for reduced rates, as well as cinematography from legendary Vilmos Zsigmond and a score by Philip Glass. Wilkinson keeps his dignity intact but, particularly in the first half McGregor and Farrell are left looking foolish. If Ewan is a reliable measuring stick, it would seem the Allen is worse director of dramatic acting than George Lucas.
This is the last of three films Allen made in this country. Removing him from his cosy New York manor initially brought some kind of limited rebirth. Match Point is the only one of his non-comedies to be anything more than execrable. His understanding of English society was well off but there was some fun to be had from seeing him struggling as a fish out of water, and the miss matched casting was enjoyably. The follow up Scoop though wasn’t even released in the UK, despite starring Scarlet Johansson and only a touching loyalty can explain the decision to release this one.
Allen has been making a film a year for the last thirty years. Famously he never watches his films after their finished; it seems his only interest is the process of making, so he just keeps on making the same mistakes because he has no real interest in the finished product is concerned he has no interest.
Cassandra’s Dream is no worse than bombs like Interiors, September, Alice, Another Woman but the old bad serious films were always made up for with a comedy the next year. But now they’re as bad as the dramas.
Why does he keep doing it? That he’s repeating the basic ideas of Match Point suggest even he knows he run out of inspiration. At this stage of his career he resembles Ali in his final fights, where you are literately begging him, or anyone else, to throw in the towel and put him out of our misery.
Directed by Woody Allen.
Starring Ewan McGregor, Colin Farrell, Hayley Atwell, Sally Hawkins, Tom Wilkinson, Phil Davis. 108 mins
Those Woody Allen rankings in full: possibly the greatest comedy writers of the 20th Century; one of the great screen performers; among the best stand up comics of all time; a fair to middling film director and surely one of the worst dramatist to ever regularly persuade to people to perform his works.
Without the funny lines all you are left with is the work of an adolescent who’s just read a few big books and come up with a few big but unoriginal insights into life. Characters have to spell out exactly what they are thinking because otherwise you’d never guess. (During the times when there isn’t any dialogue, the movie briefly becomes OK.)
I always try to avoid spoilers here but as Allen is basically having yet another go at rewriting Crime and Punishment any regular Woody viewer is going to know where we’re going with a 90% degree of certainty. McGregor and Farrell are brothers who each fall in to money trouble and then their rich uncle Howard (Wilkinson) pops in to offer them a way out.
It’s amazing how he’s kept his clout. There’s a top cast, all working for reduced rates, as well as cinematography from legendary Vilmos Zsigmond and a score by Philip Glass. Wilkinson keeps his dignity intact but, particularly in the first half McGregor and Farrell are left looking foolish. If Ewan is a reliable measuring stick, it would seem the Allen is worse director of dramatic acting than George Lucas.
This is the last of three films Allen made in this country. Removing him from his cosy New York manor initially brought some kind of limited rebirth. Match Point is the only one of his non-comedies to be anything more than execrable. His understanding of English society was well off but there was some fun to be had from seeing him struggling as a fish out of water, and the miss matched casting was enjoyably. The follow up Scoop though wasn’t even released in the UK, despite starring Scarlet Johansson and only a touching loyalty can explain the decision to release this one.
Allen has been making a film a year for the last thirty years. Famously he never watches his films after their finished; it seems his only interest is the process of making, so he just keeps on making the same mistakes because he has no real interest in the finished product is concerned he has no interest.
Cassandra’s Dream is no worse than bombs like Interiors, September, Alice, Another Woman but the old bad serious films were always made up for with a comedy the next year. But now they’re as bad as the dramas.
Why does he keep doing it? That he’s repeating the basic ideas of Match Point suggest even he knows he run out of inspiration. At this stage of his career he resembles Ali in his final fights, where you are literately begging him, or anyone else, to throw in the towel and put him out of our misery.
