Cassandra’s Dream

Woody Allen does not always do comedy—previous forays into so-called serious filmmaking include works that are usually tagged Bergmanesque, exemplified by Interiors, a deadly dull relationship drama from 1978.

However, there has been another strain in Allen’s dramatic output that owes more to Dostoyevsky than to Bergman. The most successful of these films was Crimes and Misdemeanors, a masterpiece pairing of typical Allen comedy with a gripping drama obviously inspired by and commenting on Crime and Punishment.  Allen returned to those themes most recently in the critically acclaimed (though overrated) Match Point, the first of a trilogy of films set in England, of which Cassandra’s Dream is the third. But whereas Match Point was another mix of comedy and drama—a lesser version of Crimes and Misdemeanors, in a way—Cassandra’s Dream is pure drama.

In fact, after the typical Allen white-on-black titles, it takes a while to recognize this as one of his films at all. Ewan McGregor and Colin Farrell play working-class Londoners, brothers with aims of striking it rich, one through gambling and the other through business deals.  Their Cockney accents and easy camaraderie seem to be drawn from a different filmmaker’s vocabulary.  Perhaps McGregor and Farrell’s strong, natural performances (despite sometimes wavering accents) mask the typical sound of Allen’s dialogue.

A more identifiable Allen figure enters the picture, however, in the form of their Uncle Howard (Tom Wilkinson), a wealthy businessman working mostly in America who has occasionally provided his nephews with a little extra cash and helped them out of scrapes. But that relationship proves to have a price, and when the brothers need a particularly big favor, their uncle asks a bigger favor in return. What follows is a descent into crime, guilt, and possibly punishment.

However, these brothers retain our sympathy, and so the drama of their downfall is more painful.  Each mistake made leads to another, until you want to hide your head or cry out to them to stop.  But they keep making the mistakes, for reasons you can understand but rail against.

“We had a choice,” Farrell says late in the picture.  “It seemed we didn’t, but we did.”  It is those choices and their consequences that make this the most successful film by Allen since another film on similar themes—Manhattan Murder Mystery.  That was a light comedy, with all the typical accoutrements of an Allen film—Manhattan, one-liners, and Diane Keaton. But look deeply into that and similar Allen comedies, and you will see Cassandra’s Dream in their heart.

                                                           Edward Einhorn