 Media Credit: NYTIMES.COM Badass brothers Terry (Colin Farrell) and Ian (Ewan MacGregor) strike a Faustian bargain. [Click to enlarge]
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Cassandra's Dream, Woody Allen's newest film, stars Colin Farrell and Ewan McGregor as two brothers who find themselves caught in a bind when they are inadvertently brought into a sinister world of murder and deception. The film asks: how far you are willing to go in order to pursue your dreams-and what lines are you willing to cross to do so?
In contrast to Allen's comedies, in which characters pose existential life questions but end up finding fulfillment, this film presents no easy answers and no comforting alternatives. Farrell and McGregor play two working class brothers in London who are constantly seeking material gain. Farrell stars as Terry, a car mechanic who gambles away his money playing cards and betting on dog races, while McGregor plays Ian, who works in his father's restaurant but dreams of owning hotels in California. The duo borrows Jaguars from Terry's workplace to assume the guise of wealth, and lie to the women they love about who they really are.
The film opens with the brothers using what little money they have to buy a sailboat, which they name Cassandra's Dream, after the dog that won Terry's last race. Although the brothers were probably unaware, Allen certainly knew what he was doing when he named the film after the mythological figure Cassandra, who dreamt prophesies of doom to which no one would listen. The purchase of the boat foreshadows their tragic fate that is to come.
The film takes a dark turn when Terry finds himself owing £90,000 to loan sharks while Ian finds himself in love with a woman who thinks he is a wealthy investor. When the two decide to borrow from their uncle Howard, whom their mother tells them to look up to, he asks them for something much more ominous-to kill the man whose testimony would land him in jail for fraud. Following their mother's motto, "In the end, all you can count on is family," the brothers decide to grant Howard his wish.
Allen astutely depicts the complexities of human nature as the brothers wait for the man to see his dying mother before they kill him. The wait marks the liminal period in which their humanity is put to the test, and the two unwittingly commit to a vicious cycle of rationalizing unfathomable acts in order to achieve selfish desires.
In this suspense thriller that will leave you sweating in your seat-not to mention basking in hunks-Allen presents a world where there are no moral absolutes and where happiness is an unattainable goal. He explores the consequences of wealth, and the Darwinian side of human nature where even the one maxim they have fails to hold up to man's inner brute.
Although Allen slightly insults his audience by spelling out the message in cheesy one-liners such as "We have to survive!" and "Once you cross the line there's no going back," the dialogue is generally witty, the acting convincing, and the plot never boring. This film is a must see.
Cassandra's Dream plays at Cinema du Parc starting Dec. 5.
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