Murder, he wrote

Woody Allen’s Cassandra’s Dream feels
like a less enthralling Match Point

FRATERNAL FOLLY: Ewan McGregor and Colin Farrell

by MATTHEW HAYS

Behold the strange, sometimes brilliant, occasionally baffling, resilient career of Woody Allen. The stand-up comedian-cum-auteur has been counted out countless times, but somehow invariably manages to stage an unusual comeback.

In 2005, critics almost unanimously argued that Allen had miraculously reinvented himself, looking into the dark heart of murder and conjuring up Match Point, a non-comedic look at romantic obsession and murder uncharacteristically set in London. After that critical triumph, he made Scoop (not so good) and then last year’s Cassandra’s Dream followed by this year’s Vicky Cristina Barcelona (mark this as another upswing on the career flow chart).

Cassandra’s Dream never got a proper release in Canada, so the Cinéma du Parc will be screening it this week, presumably to cash in on the good press surrounding Vicky. Dream is nowhere near as bad as Scoop or Anything Else, but it feels very much like Allen’s attempt to recapture some of the sinister moral rot at the centre of Match Point, with far less satisfying results.

Ewan McGregor and Colin Farrell play working-class brothers, bored with their lives but stuck in a bleak Britain. Farrell is a hard-drinking auto mechanic, while McGregor works at his father’s restaurant, eager to leave it all behind and pursue his own dreams. Farrell has terrible drinking and gambling habits—a bad combo, for sure—while McGregor pines for an alluring actress from a class above. A murder plot twist ensues.

The title refers to a boat the two decide to buy. They name the boat—wait for it—Cassandra’s Dream. Which is just a bit too obvious, given that Cassandra is the figure in Greek mythology who always predicts the worst for everyone. From the first frame, it’s quite clear our hapless brothers have “DOOMED” spray-painted on their foreheads in fluorescent colours.

There are things to like about Cassandra’s Dream, in particular the stunning cinematography and the stellar performances of both McGregor and Farrell. As the tormented addict who gets dragged into a crime way past his moral compass, Farrell is quite heartbreaking. But this remains a lesser Allen film, primarily a curiosity for Woody freaks.