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Cassandra's Dream
User Score
7.1 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 27 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 24 out of 27
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 27
  3. Negative: 3 out of 27

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  1. JDH.
    Jan 20, 2008
    6
    On the surface this may seem to be a rebuttal to Crimes and Misdemeanors, but a closer examination sees that it is a very different story. Once one realizes that the story is not about two brothers, but about Ian, with Terry as a supporting character, it yields a similar, yet even darker conclusion than C & M. The clue here may be the title. As Cassandra was cursed to speak the truth but not be believed, Ian speaks lies and is believed by practically everybody. (If you were cursed with the former, would you dream of the latter?) The resultant narcissism propels him toward a inexorable descent to doom that is all Greek tragedy. Unlike Judah Rosenthal, Ian has no moment of remorse after the deed, though he was much more hands on than Judah. Ian is solely driven by his appetites and those around him suffer due in no small part to his lack of substance. Still, unlike Crimes and Misdemeanors and Match Point, Mr. Allen doesn't seem to be as on his game for this outing. The pacing seems uneven and things seem to slow to a crawl at the beginning of the second hour. Though this fits in Allen's trilogy of murder quite nicely, in Ian there are interesting echoes of Lee Simon from Celebrity, both in plot mechanisms and even Mr. McGregor's resemblance to Kenneth Branagh in that role. Still, an interesting study of a doomed personality totally subsumed by his refusal to take responsibility.… Expand
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  2. JayH.
    May 19, 2008
    8
    Excellent suspense thriller, brilliantly directed and written by Woody Allen. The score is outstanding, as is the cinematography. Convincingly told and very well acted by everyone. It's held my interest throughout. Superb.
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  3. TomM.
    Jul 7, 2008
    8
    Similar to Bob Dylan in music anything Woody Allen creates is a must, no matter what the scribes or experts say. And I'm sure "Cassandra's Dream" will get its share of thumbs-down reviews from non-Woody afficionados. I liked it. The storyline was dark, strangely human, and fun. The acting was good, especially Ewan McGregor and Colin Farrell as the two brothers. I had some trouble, initially, with the British accents, but even that seemed to dissipate as the movie continued.… Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  4. CraigG.
    Nov 8, 2008
    1
    Quite possibly one of the worst movies I have seen in a long time. However I was so morbidly fascinated that I watched it all the way through on DVD to see how bad it could get. Poor script, poorly delivered by people who should have known better. The dramatic moments were quite funny. It looked like a TV soap opera gone wrong. And when lines were fluffed, why didnt the director say Cut and do it again? Redeeming features are few but some of the settings were quite pretty and the old Jaguar cars were nice too but I still couldnt see their purpose _ a bit of window dressing I suppose. And where did the boys' parents go after the dastardly deed was done? Not a word from them as the film grinds to a close. In short contrived and awful. Cassandra's dream should be Woody's nightmare.… Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  5. biffj
    Jan 18, 2008
    10
    It's much better than the critics are telling you.
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  6. JensenD.
    Jan 21, 2008
    10
    This is definitely the best movie that I have seen in some time. The middle class setting is much more realistic than most of Woody Allen's settings, and the acting is first rate. The film is a morality tale, and its themes stayed with me long after the closing credits. In brief:: one of Woody's best!
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  7. RyanS.
    Jan 20, 2008
    7
    It wasn't awful, at least. I think this would have made a better book, honestly - it reflects Macbeth rather nicely. But some of the lines were a but overdone, and Allen could have put forward the cyclical nature a bit more.
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  8. MichaelE.
    Feb 12, 2008
    6
    Pretty ordinary stuff, but Woody is a good enough writer and director to pull it off. At any rate it isn't as cold and familiar as "Match Point."
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  9. ChadS.
    Feb 3, 2008
    7
    "Cassandra's Dream" may be set in England, but some of its characters, you could argue, have a New York-state-of-mind. Just like people who say they were born into the wrong family; Ian(Ewan McGregor) and Angela(Hayley Atwell) strike me as sophisticates who somehow ended up in a Mike Leigh film. Even though Ian and Angela belong to the same working class as Terry(Colin Farrell) and Kate(Sally Hawkins), they're just conspicuously better looking, and more refined than Ian's brother and girlfriend. Like many New Yorkers, the handsome couple are planning a move to California. Even though "Cassandra's Dream" seems to mark a departure from this filmmaker's fascination with the middle-upper class, he's far from being a humane filmmaker like Leigh, or Ken Loach. Although Ian is comparatively amoral when sized-up against his tortured brother, he one-ups Terry when push comes to shove, because the favorite son has so much more at stake. Ian, to my utter disbelief, ends up being more altruistic than Terry. Ian's actions goes against the grain of the film's rhetoric, which convinces us that Terry needs to be dealt with by any means necessary. Because rhetoric in the filmic world differs from its real-life counterpart. Since nobody can get hurt from a vicarious thrill, we engage our loyalties with people from the wrong side of the law, and root for their clean getaway. Ian & Terry are no different than, say, Bonnie & Clyde, but with a difference. The brothers, unlike the fugitive lovers from the 1967 Arthur Penn film, have a caste system in place. They're not treated as equals. "Cassandra's Dream", inadvertently, says a lot about this filmmaker, whom we've always suspected was filled with contempt for the proletariat. Ian's redemption at the end of "Cassandra's Dream" is proof of an inherent Manhattan haughtiness that puts a damper, but doesn't quite cancel out the film's many strengths. But make no mistake, there is a class-warfare subtext at play here.… Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  10. CarlG
    Jan 15, 2008
    8
    Allen back in Match Point territory, though not quite as successful this time around. Some dark humor elements and some quite suspenseful moments reveal Woody is turning into something of a master of a suspenseful scene in his old age.
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  11. MarkB.
    Jan 22, 2008
    8
    Except for an early scene that quotes a famous bit in Steven Spielberg's Jaws (and maybe indicates that the two brothers in the scene, who are soon to commit an inextricable crime would have been better off if Bruce the Shark had gobbled them up) Woody Allen's latest film is almost totally devoid of humor. (Some might say that's ok, so were his most recent comedies.) The staging and shooting of several long sequences in this movie are so static that one occasionally wishes that the brothers' weapon of choice had been not a zip gun but a claw hammer, the better to remove the nails affixing the camera to the ground. And the surprise ending is far too abrupt to fully carry the punch Woody intended to deliver. Nevertheless, this is Allen's best, most accomplished and entertaining film since Crimes and Misdemeanors over a decade ago. (Note, of course, that neither film will exactly rival The Sound of Music as a blues-chaser, but who said that happy and enjoyable were always synonymous?) Ewan McGregor and Colin Farrell , both playing wonderfully against type, are cast as brothers tempted to carry out a hit that would solve various financial needs and wants; it's not surprising that in classic tradition the assignment's completion and aftermath don't go as simply and smoothly as planned, but the originality of this movie arises from the fact that it would be the perfect crime if someone's conscience didn't so relentlessly get in the way. Allen shows us which brother has a sense of ethics and which is just a wee bit, um, challenged in that area early on: Ian (McGregor) dumps his girlfriend for a woman he literally meets on the road, while Terry (Farrell) is loyal to his spouse. (But then, since she's the sweetest woman in the world--if occasionally a little clueless--and she's played by the astonishingly adorable Sally Hawkins, who here pleasantly resembles mid-1980s Rosanna Arquette, why WOULDN'T he be? Love that overbite!) It's instructive to observe that coldblooded Ian endlessly aspires to upward mobility while the compulsive Terry is a working-class joe; Allen knows that the biggest sociopaths often aren't serial killers but CEOs and that it's often not the Norman Bateses or even Hannibal Lecters you have to look out for but the Gordon Gekkos...or worse, Gekko wannabes. Terrific byplay between the brothers and an almost comically overwrought score by Phillip Glass (who also did the honors for 2006's Notes on a Scandal with equally smashing results) give Cassandra's Dream a higher rewatchability factor than Allen's earlier exercise in Britpop bloodshed, Match Point. Despite some predictable musings about greed, fate and The Meaning Of It All, Cassandra's Dream plays like a really, really good extended episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents...and how many movies, by Allen or anybody else, can make THAT estimable claim?… Expand
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  12. ERG1008
    Aug 19, 2010
    2
    Brothers buy boat after winning on horses, one brother meets actress, falls in love, other brother gambles & loses lots of money, ask rich Uncle for help, zzzzzzzzzzzz. It is pretty dreadful & not Woody Allen's finest hour. The accents are all over the place, McGregor & Farrell's acting are awful & not even the great Tom Wilkinson can save it. Didn't help that the ending was rubbish too!
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Critic Reviews

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Metascore
49 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 31 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 11 out of 31
  2. Mixed: 14 out of 31
  3. Negative: 6 out of 31
  1. Salon.com
    Reviewed by: Stephanie Zacharek
    30
    Cassandra's Dream, an earnest meditation on greed, desire, murder and class struggle, is one of Woody Allen's funniest movies in years -- except Allen doesn't know it.
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  2. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Mick LaSalle
    75
    In thematic terms, Cassandra's Dream could be looked at as a rebuttal to "Crimes and Misdemeanors."
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  3. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Kevin Crust
    50
    An uninspired if perfectly watchable drama.
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