Cast: Colin Farell, Ewan McGregor, Hayley Atwell, Tom Wilkinson, Sally Hawkins and Andrew Howard. Dir: Woody Allen Rating: 1/5
Set in contemporary London Colin Farrell and Ewan McGregor play working class brothers with serious financial problems who dream of better things than their respective mechanic and restaurant jobs.
Hard-drinking Terry (Farrell) has a weakness for gambling, while brother Ian (McGregor) hankers for the finer things when he starts dating a very ambitious actress (Hayley Atwell).
Fate deals a hand when their rich American uncle (Tom Wilkinson) slinks into London with a murderous proposition.
Their lives gradually become entangled into a sinister situation with intense and unfortunate results.
Just two years after Match Point Woody Allen returns with another London based crime drama with a similarly poor result.
The film's strong point is it's cast with Farrell and McGregor in the leads, there's plenty of star power and they're allowed to develop a charming and convincing rapport that carries the film, along with Wilkinson's old-school gravitas and Atwell's luminous charisma.
But that is where the plus points really end of this film despite the film being labelled a thriller nothing seems to happen and the plot just plods a long at a desperately slow pace that you lose interest in what happens.
And while the cast do the best with the material that they are given it's difficult to feel any sympathy towards the or care about their fate.
Not to mention the plot which seems totally absurd, two loser brothers turn assassin to bail out their corrupt uncle, which will see Cassandra's Dream become another dub on Woody Allen's CV.
For many Allen fans this is a real disappointment and very much a bad dream where you wake up and ask yourself what has happened to this once very fine director who seems to have lost his way?
Cassandra's Dream is released 29th September
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw