Cassandra's Dream (2007)
Directed by Woody Allen
The tale of two brothers with serious financial woes. When a third party proposes they turn to crime, things go bad and the two become enemies.
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What critics compared Cassandra's Dream to
For every Match Point or Vicky Christina Barcelona there’s a Cassandra’s Dream or Whatever Works.
Sure, Match Point was quite intriguing, and there were the low-key charms of Melinda and Melinda, Cassandra's Dream, and Vicky Cristina Barcelona ... but it will take a pretty long time to wash away the stench of the run that included Anything Else, Hollywood Ending, and The Curse of the Jade Scorpion.
Being as inconsistent as he is prolific, it would be fair to say that Woody Allen’s late-day career has been hot-and-cold at best; for every success – most recently the likes of Match Point and Vicky Cristina Barcelona – there is something that didn’t quite work – Cassandra’s Dream or Scoop – and even in his better recent films, there is a bitter taste of misanthropy which, while at one time fresh and diverting, has long become tiresome and trite.
Having already plundered London (Match Point, Scoop, Cassandra's Dream, You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger) and various locations in Spain (Vicky Cristina Barcelona), it was only a matter of time before he found his way to the place that Bogie and Ingrid Bergman would always remember.
The inclusion of several head-scratchingly needless interludes - ie Begley, Jr's tedious encounter with a gay man at a bar - within its home stretch cements Whatever Works' place as a sporadically watchable yet hopelessly uneven piece of work, and - given the strength of such recent endeavors as Cassandra's Dream and Vicky Cristina Barcelona - it would appear that Allen is better off working overseas.
Writer/director Woody Allen ("Match Point," "Cassandra's Dream") has assembled one of his most unusual casts for his latest, European set film and his combination of recent favorite (Scarlett Johansson, "Scoop," "The Black Dahlia"), new discovery (Rebecca Hall, "Starter for 10," "The Prestige") and local blood (Javier Bardem, "No Country for Old Men" and (Penélope Cruz, "Volver") sizzles and sparks.
The actors make Allen's dialogue seem much more natural than, say, Ewan McGregor and Colin Farrell did in Allen's "Cassandra's Dream."
It’s Allen moving away from the monumentally sobering “Cassandra’s Dream,” but “Vicky,” with its documentarian feel, plays matters slightly more chilled than expected.
And only once, in the very good "Cassandra's Dream," have the moral and emotional trappings of the trip compelled him to take some risks.
None of the three movies to reach theaters after it have come close to achieving an equal plateau, although this latest effort, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, is a step up from its immediate predecessors, Scoop and Cassandra's Dream .
After shooting three movies in a row in England ("Match Point," "Scoop" and "Cassandra's Dream") the notoriously Manhattan-bound Woody Allen continues his European vacation with a stop in Spain for the comedic romantic drama "Vicky Cristina Barcelona."