Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #14037 in DVD
• Released on: 2008-09-29
• Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 103 minutes

Synopsis
Woody Allen wrote and directed this London-set feature, a modern noir with black comic trimmings. Colin Farrell and Ewan McGregor play working class brothers who dream of better things than their respective mechanic and restaurant jobs. Hard-drinking Terry (Farrell) has a weakness for gambling, while brother Ian (McGregor) hankers for the finer things when he starts dating a very ambitious actress (Hayley Atwell). Fate deals a hand when their rich American uncle (Tom Wilkinson) slinks into London with a murderous proposition.

Named for the boat the lads buy during a rare flush moment--a symbol of the morally compromising power of money and the inevitability, perhaps, of fate--CASSANDRA'S DREAM is another of Allen's loving looks at moneyed urbanites and their penchant for living out Greek tragedy, a la MATCH POINT and CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS. This time around, it's a bit darker, but with Farrell and McGregor in the leads, there's plenty of star power. The lads are clearly having a ball acting under Allen's direction, and they're allowed to develop a charming, rapid-fire fraternal rapport that carries the film--along with Wilkinson's old-school gravitas and Atwell's luminous charisma. Phillip Glass composed the score.

Customer Reviews

Cassandra's Nightmare
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.

This film will not be everybody's cup of tea. It is clear that Woody Allen is not out to please the average movie-goer (nor should he necessarily); throughout the film he alludes to Greek tragedy. 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; then, after a final twist as they pass the point-of-no-return, he begins to loosen his grip on the plot as the action unwinds to its logical conclusion.

Allen 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 trance, 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 break 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, set in ancient Argos, offers the theatre-goer the distance of some two-and-a-half millennia, while the former, set in modern-day London, is too close for comfort.

Superb Tale of Life
Woody Allen suffers from having a hard core fan base who like slapstick. This means that his huge body of quality films is decried as they are not as inane as "Sleeper". Me, I hated the slapstick period and it took Match Point for me to look at Woody Allen again, and find out I was wrong and that he is a master. This film is excellent. I watched it with my wife, and we both agreed it was the best film we had seen in a long time. Colin Farrel actually acts (redeemed for Alexander) and I can now forgive Ewan McGregor for "The Phantom Menance".

Seriously stop watching Woody Allen for comedy, watch him for the truest capturing of the human condition in modern day art, and you will find the kindness, cruelty, reality, pathos, and humour that is all our lives

Disaster Movie
I second the review posted by 2cleverbyhalf. The line "It's insanely bad" sums this film up (and got me laughing). I watched it on a plane and had to turn it off before I upset my neighbour with my outraged gesticulations. What a monumental waste of time and money. Can this be the same man who made Manhattan?