Cassandra's Dream

 

Cassandra’s Dream

• Director: Woody Allen
• Seen by this director: Sweet and Lowdown, clips from many others
• Based on the book: no
• Cast: Ewan McGregor, Colin Farrell, Hayley Atwell, John Benfield, Claire Higgins, Ashley Madekwe, Sally Hawkins,
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:

o   Ewan Macgregor – Doctor Sleep, Christopher Robin, Trainspotting 1&2, American PastoralOur Kind of Traitor, Star Wars etc, Mortdecai, August Osage CountyJack the Giant Slayer, The Impossible, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, Perfect Sense, The Ghost Writer, The Men Who Stare at Goats, The Island, Big Fish, Down with Love, Moulin Rouge, Little Voice, A Life Less Ordinary, Velvet Goldmine, Night Watch, Brassed Off, Shallow Grave

o   Colin Farrell – The Gentlemen, Widows, The Killing of a Sacred Deer, Winter’s Tale, Total Recall, Fright Night, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, In Bruges, Miami Vice, Intermission

o   Hayley Atwell – Blinded by the Light, Christopher Robin, Antman, Testament of Youth, The Pillars of the Earth

o   Claire Higgins - Ready Player One, Doctor Who, I Give It a Year, Being Human, The Golden Compass, The Libertine

o   Sally Hawkins – Maudie, The Shape of Water, The Hollow Crown, x + y, Great Expectations, Jane Eyre, Made in Dagenham, Never Let Me Go, An Education, Happy-Go-Lucky, Little Britain, Twenty Thousand Streets under the Sky, Vera Drake

o   Tom Wilkinson – Selma, Snowden, The Lone Ranger, Hotel Marigold 1&2, The Conspirator, The Ghost Writer, Valkyria, Batman Begins, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mid, Girl with Pearl Earring, Before You Go, Shakespeare in Love, Wilde, The Full Monty, Smilla’s Sense of Snow, Sense and Sensibility, Prince of Jutland, In the Name of the Father

o   Phil Davis – Poldark, Being Human, Merlin, Brighton Rock, Another Year, Doctor Who, Notes on a Scandal, Rose and Maloney, Twenty Thousand Streets under the Sky, Vera Drake, White Teeth, Still Crazy, In the Name of the Father, Alien 3

• ·       Why? The cast. 
• Seen: 25 April 2023

      

       A great cast, music by Philip Glass but alas! Written and directed by Woody Allen whose films I simply don’t like, what I’ve seen of them. I really do hope that this is the exception.

       Working class brothers Terry (Farrell) and Ian (MacGregor) win on betting and buy a used sailboat that they name Cassandra’s Dream. There are girlfriends, flash cars, dreams of the big time, angry dad, shady rich uncle, crime.

Put it all together and what do you get? A great cast, music by Philip Glass and an unpleasant film by Woody Allen, no better than his others.

       MacGregor and Farrell do what they can with these unlikeable characters but it’s not enough.

 

2* of 5