sogni e delitti

con Colin Farrell, Ewan McGregor

24/30

The new film of respected director Woody Allen disappoints expectations. Cassandra’s Dream is to be compared to the film Match Point, a moral dilemma between money, power and ethics. Two brothers have a decent lower class life, one (Ewan McGergor) working in the restaurant of their father until the former fully recovers from a hart attack, the other as a car mechanic (Colin Farrell). They dream of bigger things, mostly inspired by the life of their uncle (Tom Wilkinson), who’s a very successful, rich plastic surgeon with several clinics all over the world. The two boys however don’t seem to get out of the lower life class. Farrell is addicted to gambling and ends up losing 90.000 pounds. McGregor falls in love with a high-maintenance actress to whom he pretends to be a rich hotel investor in California, driving a borrowed Jaguar. They need money to fulfill all their dreams and in the week that crisis hits and Farrell needs to pay off his debts, their rich uncle sets foot on British ground after a long time. Tom Wilkinson however has his own hidden agenda and puts them in front of a moral dilemma. ‘Terrible allegations’ have been made towards him. He’s in trouble and needs the help of his two nephews, since you can only rely on family in this world. If the two boys make this person ‘disappear’ they will get all the money they need to do whatever they want.
This is where the plot gets interesting and looses its strength at the same time. Their biggest example in life, their uncle, is involved in shady businesses, but on the other hand a way up just arrived. McGregor can keep the girl he wants, Farrell will be able to pay off his debts and open the sport shop he always wanted. The moral dilemma of the two, the looming success set against a crime, can again be traced back to Dostoyevsky’s ‘Crime and Punishment’, like Match Point and several references to Greek Tragedies are not to be missed.

However, Allen’s biggest known strength is nowhere to be found. Savvy dialogs are missing; the mind spins are very obvious and lack depth. The plot outlines are the trigger, but there’s nothing interesting that comes out of the gun. It’s an amusing film with a good cast, but in the light of comparison, it even stands in the shades of his latest films.

05:09:2007

Tutte le recensioni di Venezia  2007