Cassandra’s Dream
Cassandra’s Dream is the name of a long shot horse which is used to christen a pre-owned sailboat. The boat is the proud new possession of two British brothers who are out to beat the odds, each in his own way. Ewen McGregor is Ian, clearly the more grounded of the two. The boat turns out to be his in with Angela (Hayley Atwell) a budding actress he wants to impress but his real dream is to escape the inevitable fate of taking over his father’s struggling restaurant. Colin Farrell is brother Terry who with a job as a mechanic and steady girlfriend Kate (a subdued pre Happy-Go-Lucky Sally Hawkins) is the less ambitious of the two but suffers chronic stress dues to a gambling addiction. His luck at games of chance runs out about the time that Ian is ready to make a move and the only salvation for both is rich, philanthropic uncle Howard (Tom Wilkinson) whose globe trotting is about to land them a visit. However his promise to bankroll the brothers’ future comes with some heavy duty strings attached which leaves the siblings to deal with a moral crisis which Ian deals with far better than Terry. Cassandra’s Dream is a rare drama for Woody Allen who as usual manages to draw big names to a small budget film which turns out to be an actor’s workshop as much as a tidy tale. Perhaps unlike the dreams of the mythical Cassandra, predictions of this films reception were believed and wide release was wisely held up until it could ride the coat tails of a big success like Vicky Christina Barcelona.