Cassandra's Dream
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Movie Reviews of Cassandra's Dream
Movie Review: London Murder Mystery
Summary: 4 Stars
The critics seem to enjoy beating up Woody Allen. "Cassandra's Dream" follows in the trend of the last 15 or so years of the public and critics turning their back on Allen and his films. I've found that they sometimes take cheap shots. It's one thing not to like an Allen film, but often I read personal attacks against Allen the man. Remarks are made concerning his age, personal life and his relationship with Soon-Yi. Rarely do critics stick to comments concerning editing, cinematography or acting without inserting a jab at Allen.
Every review I've come across for this film has been negative. "Variety" did not like it, spending a majority of the review complaining about the characters accents and the language used in the film, citing it is not authentic if you are British. Roger Ebert did not like it nor did the Chicago Tribune while the New York Times seemed luke-warm to it.
Once again however I find myself on the outside of public opinion. "Cassandra's Dream" is one of 2007's best films. Many may want to compare it to Allen's "Match Point", Allen's other film set in London revolving around murder and social class. Don't! The films are very different. "Match Point" I felt used metaphor in a more superior way. I thought Allen did a better job expressing his views on society in that film, but, "Cassandra's Dream" should not go without its due praise.
The film follows two lower class brothers, Ian (Ewan McGregor) and Terry (Colin Farrell) trying to get by and climb the social ladder to success. Terry has a bit of a drinking and gambling problem. For now the gambling is paying off. Winning small amounts at cards and betting on the dog track. Ian on the other hand works at the family restuarant but dreams of investing in hotels. In many ways he wants to be like his rich uncle Howard (Tom Wilkinson), who has travelled all over the world.
One day Terry's luck runs out, he losses big at a poker game and is 90 thousand pounds in debt. Where will he get the money? Ian has some money saved for his hotel investments but not 90 thousand pounds. Their only hope is their rich uncle.
Before their uncle will give them the money he has a favor to ask. There is a whistle-blower at Howard's company who is going to testify against him for some questionable business moves he made. Howard needs the man to be, shall we say, eliminated. And he can only turn to his family for such a request.
At the heart of Allen's film is what lies in men's souls. Are good people capable of bad things. The brothers may have their faults, but they are not criminals. The tagline line for the film is every dream has a price. It's key to the film. How far would you go to reach your dreams? How severely will we allow our moral judgement to punish us for "sinful" acts?
We saw this question present itself in Allen's "Match Point" and "Crimes and Misdemeanors" (which also had brothers planning a murder. In fact the original title for the film was "Brothers") .
McGregor is good in the film as his character I felt was better defined and goes through more of a transformation. Farrell is the weak link of the bunch. His character seems underdeveloped. In honesty both characters could have used more work but McGregor adds something to the character through his presence as an actor. He makes the part more interesting then it was written. Farrell keeps his performance at the page level. Meaning he doesn't flesh the character out to make it his own but instead simply sticks to the page.
The major acting find here is Hayley Atwell. She is a treasure playing Angela Stark, a love interest for Ian. She is an unknown actress who has the potential to be a star. Unfortunately Allen and his legendary Hungarian cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond, whose credits include "The Long Goodbye", "The Deer Hunter", "Blow Out" and Allen's "Melinda and Melinda" don't linger on Atwell. Allen should have had the camera follow her more aggressively, making the camera and the viewer fall in love with her. But that may have changed the tone of the film.
Zsigmond though for his part does get some beautiful country side shots as Allen shows as a different side of London than what we saw in "Scoop" and "Match Point". We see a more gritty side of London.
The editing of the film I also found effective. It slowly builds tension. As I first began watching the film I thought to myself this is a "good" Allen film. Then I slowly became more and mroe involved. How would the murder happen? Would they do it? Will they get away with it? How will such a film end? The film really grabbed my attention. My eyes became glued to the screen.
Sure there are downsides to the film, some of the performances, I thought more could have been done with Atwell and I found the original score by Philip Glass, at times unsuccessful in creating the proper mood. I didn't think it added much to the film. I thought the best scenes were the ones without any music. But "Cassandra's Dream" is worth seeing. Yes the negative remarks will continue, but for me at least, I'm glad I saw this film.
Bottom-line: One of 2007's best films. Despite some flaws Allen manages to keep his audience engaged. The film slowly creeps up on you.
Movie Review: Sterling performances from Ewan McGregor and Colin Farrell!
Summary: 4 Stars
A few years ago, you may remember, Colin Farrell was touted as a hot young up-and-comer...a great actor with great looks. Someone who would be a movie star at any moment. Farrell then proceeded to "star" in a number of movies that the public was not interested in, such as THE NEW WORLD, ALEXANDER and THE RECRUIT. The soul-less MIAMI VICE was the bottom. It made some money, but Farrell was so uninteresting in it (and seemed so uninterested)...his moment of glory was done.
A few years ago, you may remember Ewan McGregor was a hot young up-and-coming star, after turning on critics with TRAINSPOTTING and striking a chord with Americans in a one-episode appearance on the smash hit TV show "ER." He was about to be a star. Well, he too starred in some movies no one wanted to see, such as DOWN WITH LOVE and STAY (although his natural charm and charisma never let him look bored.) He was arguably the best thing in the new STAR WARS movies, but he got lost in all the hand-wringing over how bad they were. His star faded.
For many years, in good movies and bad, Woody Allen has written great roles for women, including Oscar winning and nominated parts great and small. Have Diane Keaton, Mia Farrow, Judy Davis, Dianne Wiest, etc. ever been better than when working with Woody? But his star faded too. Each year, he churned out another clunker (MELINDA AND MELINDA, ANYTHING ELSE?). He still had big roles for women, but no one cared that Tea Leoni gave a tart performance in HOLLYWOOD ENDING.
A couple of years ago, Allen turned his attention to London, and suddenly there appeared MATCH POINT, his best movie in years. Emily Mortimer and Scarlett Johanssen gave highly praised performances...but I couldn't help noticing that the best performance came from Jonathan Rhys-Meyers. The next year, in London again, came the minor comedy SCOOP, which at least managed to be more funny than some of his more recent work. Johanssen again was okay, but ironically it was Allen's most amusing acting in awhile. And then came CASSANDRA'S DREAM.
There are women in this film, and they are all quite okay. But this is an ACTOR'S film...and suddenly we are reminded that Colin Farrell and Ewan McGregor are actually capable of truly moving performances, complex, flesh-out, lived-in and believable. They are not afraid to play genuinely flawed people. Allen has given them lots of rich dialogue to work with, and they RIP into it with gusto.
They play brothers who are always a bit down on their luck. McGregor works in his father's restaurant, but dreams of "making it big" with some sort of get rich quick scheme or another. He clearly has no head for business, but he wants to be rich, move to California and show off. He also wants to impress a beautiful actress he's in love with who he's made THINK he's all these things. Farrell is a mechanic who spends most of his time winning at gambling and even more of it losing. Both brothers are clearly addicted to the idea of fast, easy money...even if they recognize that these desires are flawed.
Both of them find themselves needing more money than they can possibly lay their hands on. And into their lives comes their very rich uncle (Tom Wilkinson...oozing easy menace in a way that Sidney Pollack would have done in an American film.) He wants to help them...but in return they must do something for him that is pretty horrible to contemplate.
Will they compromise their morals? If they do, will they be able to live with what they've done? Will money bring them happiness?
Allen has grappled with these themes before, and there's not really any new moral territory being explored. But the London setting has finally freed Allen's writing from sounding just like a film by...Woody Allen. McGregor and Farrell bring their own cadence to the dialogue, and they have both dug deep into their portrayals...so they sound like real people and not just Allen concoctions.
The movie builds some real tension. As the brothers face what they are considering doing, we truly feel some of the tension they do. We are sometimes appalled by them, but we always root for them. Neither of these actors would have expected to be renewed as movie stars with this film...but they saw a chance to renew their stature as actors. And both men succeed very well indeed. (And Farrell went on next to the superior, totaling gripping IN BRUGES...one of my favorite movies of 2008.)
The story comes to a rushed and disappointing conclusion...clearly grabbing to come off as Greek tragedy but most seeming lazy...as though Allen just didn't know how to wrap it all up. No one else in the film matches Farrell and McGregor for intensity of acting or clarity of characterization. Thus, this is a flawed film...but it's always interesting and it is more than redeemed by two outstanding performances.
It's a Woody Allen film (like MATCH POINT) that I would actually recommend to thoughtful adults who generally don't like Woody Allen. THAT is a rarity.
Movie Review: Good
Summary: 4 Stars
The DVD, by Genius LLC, has no features, save a few theatrical trailers of other films. The film's score, by Philip Glass, is hit and miss- as often emotionally leading an audience by the nose as genuinely enhancing the film, a characteristic far too many Glass scores embody. The camera work by longtime Allen collaborator Vilmos Zsigmond is quite good. But, the writing is what sets this film apart from so many other routine `thrillers.' In a sense, Allen's problem with such a film reminds me of a similar problem that German director Werner Herzog had with his recent Vietnam War film, Rescue Dawn. So many critics focused on how its similarity in themes to earlier masterpieces by the director showed the later film up as inferior to the earlier ones that they missed out that the newer films were damned good on their own. Yes, Rescue Dawn is not as good, deep, and poetic as Aguirre: The Wrath Of God, and similarly Cassandra's Dream is not the almost perfectly crafted masterpiece that was Crimes And Misdemeanors, but so what? Both are outstanding films that, shorn of the comparisons, and if directed by artists other than Herzog and Allen, would have drawn unadorned raves. Also, it's helpful to note that the critics who dissed this film are the same folk who dissed the same earlier great Allen films when they came out, but who now hold them up as exemplars, only exemplifying the utter lack of critical acumen this essay's first sentence denotes.
This film also provides a terrific showcase for Colin Farrell to show off his acting chops. Playing against type, he is the weaker of the two brothers, and he is excellent, showing that he is not mere female eye candy, and that turns in stinkers, like Oliver Stone's Alexander, are not the best he can do. Ewan McGregor is good, as usual, as are the girlfriends, Atwell and Hawkins. Wilkinson is solid as the uncle, but the film might have given him a bit more to do. As is, his character is only a plot device to propel the brothers on their journeys, although the fumbling delivery Howard makes, and his digressions on why he won't consider a professional contract, make the scene all the more believable.
But, the film is so rich with great moments that detail character and plot, as mentioned earlier, that the screenplay could be used as an aid in screenwriting classes, for the film does trod over familiar Allen territory, but often with new twists and interesting asides which only deepen the resonance the film has. As example, after Ian meets Angela, he dumps his black girlfriend, Lucy, and a bit later, we see him callously telling his dad how special Angela is, and how much better and classier than any other girl he's dated she is. Lucy hears this, and the reaction she gives subtly lets us know how hurt she is and what an insensitive ass Ian is. There is also a scene where Ian questions Angela's ethic, by asking her if she'd sleep with a director to get a part, and she replies under what conditions she would. Ian, who has far weightier issues to deal with, seems stunned, but Angela puts him in his place by stating she gave the answers, but did not like the question. It's a small moment that shows that, while vain and egocentric, she does have a delineated ethical compass, and a penchant for giving as good as she gets- something many more one dimensional Allen sexpots lack. But, these are only two of a dozen or more such moments that enrich this film beyond mere `thriller' status.
And while Terry and Ian ruminate a bit on ethics they are not the typical Allen eggheads hemmed in by their intellectual prowess and emotional impotence. Their collective naïve-te is actually a bit refreshing, for when they repeat ideas hashed out in earlier Allen films (like the concept of `pushing a button' and someone is dead, borrowed from Crimes And Misdemeanors) or fixate on new ones (such as an addled Terry's claim that `It's always now!'- i.e.- the moment they committed murder) it is always in a different tone- one with more desperation, pathos, or stolidity- than before or expected. Also the fact that Allen, at several points, including the film's ending, seems to let the film settle into a groove that seems predictable, only to pull out the rug from under the viewers' expectations, lets the film maintain a tension and vigor it would otherwise lack. Viewers naturally desire clichés, in an emotional sense, for the comfort, yet when the film resists it the momentary disappointment blossoms into attraction to the storyline's turn from the expected, for manifest clichés invoke an intellectual resistance in a viewer, as well.
All in all, Cassandra's Dream is an outstanding and acidic portrait of family and crime, and one that was shamefully dismissed, when not neglected, by the idiotic elitists that populate the critical consensus that dominates film reviewing. Go against the grain, seek out this film on DVD, and let it work within you as well as on you.
Movie Review: Finely constructed tale of conflicting moralities...
Summary: 4 Stars
Lately I've been indulging myself in a lot of classic and foreign films, so much so that I have been neglecting a lot of recent work that I would normally be biting at the bit to watch.
Despite that though, I have found room for some.
Beings that I have recently (okay, so it's been a few solid months now) fallen head over heals in love with Woody Allen I decided that I needed to see this film, despite its rather `under the radar' distribution (not to mention all of the `Allen attention' going towards his Oscar winning `Vicky Cristina Barcelona'). This is not Allen at his best, but it is not the disposable film some may have you believe it is.
It's clever, intense, gripping and entertaining throughout.
The story is told of two brothers who meet different ends of desperation. Terry is wild and careless and winds up racking up quite a bit of gambling debts while Ian is a little more controlled and has his own set of particular aspirations but lacks the needed funds to make those dreams come true (and woo the girl he's grown to fancy). The boys approach their uncle who is more than willing to give them the money, at a price.
What follows is a morale play that pits brother against brother. The boys uncle asks them to commit a crime; murder. Terry, the reckless one reacts as one might have expected Ian to react. He retreats. He doesn't want anything to do with this bizarre request. Ian on the other hand jumps in. Sure, he doesn't want to kill a man, but he has seen his future and it is grand and he will do whatever is needed to grasp that said future in his hands. The brothers feud over the mission, but what happens afterward, after the job is done so-to-speak, is what really forms the basis for the film.
The acting is very good throughout, especially from the likes of Colin Farrell (who is having a great year, what with this, `In Bruges' and that well deserved Golden Globe win a few months back). Farrell tackles his characters inner conflict and outward displays of depression brilliantly. Ewan McGregor is an actor who I generally enjoy despite him never truly amazing me. He nails this. He perfectly compliments Farrell, engaging his characters lust for life masterfully. The woman who share the screen with these men don't fare as well, not because they aren't great actresses but because the script is far less interested in them as it should be. Hayley Atwell and Sally Hawkins are both stunning and engaging, but their characters are thinly developed; especially Hawkins who truly could have been `best in show' had she been given layers to work with. Tom Wilkinson is only on screen for a short time, but he is always commanding and always astonishing and really should be in like every movie.
The ending is tragic and appropriate to say the least. I was caught off guard in a good way. Woody Allen has been really working at bringing himself back into the good graces of cinema, and I think his recent string of films is doing just that. Add this to the likes of `Melinda and Melinda'; Woody Allen light.
Just goes to show you that if you are good at what you do you don't always have to best yourself in order to be great.
Movie Review: Cassandra's Nightmare
Summary: 4 Stars
Colin Farrell and Ewan MacGregor turn in stellar performances as brothers in "Cassandra's Dream," a stark tragedy which demands that its protagonists choose between loyalty to family and the right thing to do; and because of their respective failings, they become enmeshed in a net from which there is no escape.
It is clear that Woody Allen is not out to please the average movie-goer (nor should he necessarily), because throughout the film he alludes to Greek tragedy in general. By beginning slowly--perhaps a bit too slowly--and then tightening the screws of the plot, Allen takes his characters to the critical moment where they have a choice, and then, after a final twist when they pass the point-of-no-return, he begins to loosen his grip on the plot as the action unwinds to its logical, but ironic conclusion.
Allen also alludes specifically Aeschylus' "Oresteia"--the tragedy of murder within the family; blood-begetting-blood; and its resultant guilt and madness. The very title, "Cassandra's Dream," alludes to Aeschylus' drama; for in a state of madness, Cassandra--with the gift of prophecy that no one believes--foretells the murders that are about to take place within the house. In a similar manner, Allen's opening and closing camera shots that focus on the boat named "Cassandra's Dream," both foreshadow and look back on murder for which the viewer, like the Greek chorus, is unprepared.
This is not Allen's only subtle use of irony in the context of tragedy: In mid-film, when the aspiring actress, who is in love with one of the brothers, meets a serious theatre director, who confides that Euripides' "Medea" is his favorite tragedy, she betrays her lack of theatrical gravitas by replying that yes, Clytemnestra is her favorite character. Since Clytemnestra is not in "Medea" but in the "Oresteia," Allen indicates that she will likely not get the part and the opportunity which she so desperately craves.
"Cassandra's Dream" is a difficult film to watch, but then so is Aeschylus' "Oresteia," the only difference being that the latter tale of murder, set in ancient Argos, offers the theatre-goer the comfortable distance of some two-and-a-half millennia, while the former, set in modern-day London, is too close for comfort.