Review: Cassandra’s Dream

You see, Terry is a gambler and he has lucky streaks where he is able to get a ton of cash. But like most gamblers, he soon throws it all away. Ian on the other had, is a smart young man with several plans to start a few hotels and make himself rich. But he is stuck running his fathers restaurant with dear old dad sick at home. And he is also in need of a large sum of cash to continue his venture. Both of the two are in need of money and the only person they know that has it is their rich uncle named Howard (Tom Wilkinson). This is the same uncle that their mother constantly talks about while further making dad feel even more worthless. When Howard arrives, Ian and Terry approach him about a loan. And with this, Howard obliges… if they do something for him. And that something is kill a man that is about to testify against him. By using guilt, he gets the brothers to agree to take a man’s life.

So we begin. Even though both brothers accept it, first, because of a strong need for money. And then second, is family loyalty. All this leads to one of my major issues with the film. I truly think that when someone decides to do something that might be dangerous, or hurtful or just hard on that person, there is probably a great deal of inner turmoil. How many times do we have questions about what we are doing and if it is right or wrong? Do we talk about it with our family or loved ones? Absolutely. But sometimes truth makes for a dull movie. In fact, every scene after the proposition plays like… ‘I don’t wanna do it.’ to ‘we gotta do it’, and then ‘no, I don’t wanna do it’ back to, ‘we have to do it.’. And the movie goes on and on in this fashion until something happens. Then it continues with this right or wrong dialogue which makes it sort of real, and sort of boring.

I really liked both Ewan and Colin almost always. They are strong actors, and create a very natural bond in this film. But for some reason I didn’t feel as if I was watching Ian and Terry, I felt as if I was watching Ewan and Colin. The dialogue just didn’t ring true enough to make me believe in the situation. Even when the amazing Tom Wilkinson shows up, it just didn’t feel right. It wasn’t bad dialogue necessarily and these are all good actors. But the repetitive nature, which as I said, feels somewhat like real life, just didn’t work for me. And even the storyline, which is basically a thriller with a ton of talk, never reached a thrilling level. Both men have girlfriends and such and they really added a touch of life, especially the self absorbed actress named Angela (Hayley Atwell). Hayley is lovely as the young woman who falls for what she thinks Ian is. He borrows cars from the car repair shop where Terry works and takes her around in this type of luxury. She steals many of the scenes she is in with her performance.