As many know, Woody Allen started as a director in the early 1970’s, and in 1977 scored a huge hit with Annie Hall, an utterly distinct classic full of confessional wit and bittersweet romance. Since then, he has made movies at an astonishingly consistent rate, emulating his idol Ingmar Bergman. Allen’s movies have ranged from intelligent romantic comedies, to philosophical dramas (Interiors, Crimes and Misdemeanors), to throwaway farces (Manhatten Murder Mystery). No matter what, there was a sense of Woody-Allenism to all of them. Perhaps it was the characters’ tendencies to try to verbalise their conditions at all times, and often getting it wrong. Maybe it was the whiney voices. Or maybe it was the little man’s presence in most movies himself. But like it or not, Woody Allen movies were recognisably Woody Allen movies. Even when Woody waved goodbye to New York and started filming in England, films like Match Point had a Dostoyevskian tone that very few film director’s could capture.
But Cassandra’s Dream, Woody’s third film set in England, feels nothing like Woody. It feels, and looks, like a drab British thriller. The plot, in which two brothers get themselves involved in a murder due to financial difficulties, and eventually (assumingly) their bond gets torn apart in the aftermath, is as dull as dishwater. Murder and its consequences must be one of the most overly repeated themes in cinema, and few have managed to best Hitchcock’s attempts. The acting seems poor (Colin Farrell and Ewen McGregor lack the presence to hold the screen, even when together), and the script lacks the wit or the philosophy of past Woody greats.
Has Woody finally got sick of himself, and is now trying to make a “regular” film? Or is the film’s distributor attempting to present the film as Non-Woody considering the financial disaster that was his last film, Scoop?
Cassandra’s Dream opens on December 28th in the US, and is already making its way around Europe and Asia.
