Review

Review Date: 20-January-08
Spoiler Rating: Medium
Juju Judgment: Junk

Cassandra's Dream (2008)

I tend to like movies that make me think, but not ones that make me think "Why does this story exist?" "Cassandra's Dream" is the second film about appalling morons doing horrid things to which I have subjected myself recently, the first being "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead." As with that picture, "Cassandra's Dream" is directed by a revered cinematic elder (Woody Allen, who also wrote the script) and concerns two brothers who commit a crime inspired by their family in the hopes of scoring big. Also like "Devil," one brother (Ewan McGregor) fancies himself a high roller entitled to cars, mansions, and a bimbo (Hayley Atwell), while the other (Colin Farrell) is a weakling with dangerous debts. They seek to escape their pathetic state no matter the cost in human decency or life. And they are so stupid that when it goes sour they actually experience surprise.

Who wants to contemplate this crap?

I can think of only one instance when a suchlike brothers-behaving-badly plot worked. In "A Simple Tale" Sam Raimi tapped his horror-movie background to depict the tension inherent in wrongdoing, and his characters did not seek their opportunity, it descended upon them like the angel of death. Tales such as the one Allen spins might be viewed as darkly moral reminders that illegality bites the average man in the ass, the assumption being that poor judgment, shallowness, and, yes, a niggling conscience comprise the average. What really turns me off is that they über-cynically suggest that taboo acts are off-limits to the average man because he is too foolish to succeed, whereas guys who have been flinty bastards their whole lives can get away with murder. Guys like Uncle Howard here (Tom Wilkinson), an evil plastic surgeon (pardon my redundancy) who uses ill-gotten gains to make himself look powerful and benevolent and twists the notion of family to heinous effect.

If there is one bright spot to "Cassandra's Dream" which "Devil" lacked, it is the almost comical degree of cynicism best evidenced by Wilkinson's central scene. Several people laughed at the showing I attended in obvious response to their shock. Yet Allen may not have realized he was overdoing it when he penned lines like "One day you reach a point and there is no tomorrow," something which Farrell's Cockney doofus would never say but which drips from his tongue in near-rapturous existential disgust. Whatever sickness compels filmmakers to tell stories like this, Allen suffers from it in spades. If one can laugh at it, at least it is worth something.

Copyright © 2008 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.