Review Summary

“Cassandra’s Dream,” Woody Allen’s latest excursion to the dark side of human nature, is good enough that you may wonder why he doesn’t just stop making comedies once and for all. Perhaps that’s heretical, but it’s the view of someone who has accompanied Mr. Allen on all his recent follies, “The Curse of the Jade Scorpion” included, and has too often heard her own laughter die gurgling in her throat from a lack of inspiration. There’s nothing remotely funny about “Cassandra’s Dream,” save perhaps that immodest title. A well-matched Ewan McGregor and Colin Farrell play Ian and Terry, brothers in blood and deed. Somewhat flash, with natty suits and a jaunty walk, Ian helps run their father’s struggling restaurant; Terry, in turn, works in a garage where the grease creeps under his nails and stays there. Like all filmmakers, Mr. Allen steals from himself like a magpie, which wouldn’t be grounds for criticism if he were a more dedicated and careful thief. Like many of his later films, though, “Cassandra’s Dream” feels too lightly polished and often rushed, as if he had directed it with a stopwatch. That’s too bad, because while Mr. Allen may feel as if he’s running out of time, he has scarcely run out of ideas. — Manohla Dargis, The New York Times