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Trailer here. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITKu7G13SE0)
Release Date: November 30th, 2007 (limited)
Starring: Colin Farrell, Ewan McGregor, Tom Wilkinson, Hayley Atwell, Sally Hawkins
Directed by: Woody Allen
Premise: Two brothers with serious financial woes are approached by a third party to commit a crime, but things go bad and the brothers become enemies.
I'm more hopeful this film will be better than his last few. "Phases" for Woody Allen are nothing new. Once upon a time he went through an Ingmar Bergman phase. My problem with Match Point and Melinda and Melinda is that they were light on his trademark humor and opportunistic of bad ideas that people would respect. Match Point wasn't better because it had a few Bunuel sequences and genre mixing. It still was sloppy writing and not very good.
This film seems dedicated to the story and characters. I'll take that over his last few efforts.
This reminds me of Before The Devil Knows You're Dead (http://xixax.com/index.php?topic=9754.0). But this looks sexier.
Woody Allen says new film reflects tragedy of life
How far would you go to get rich quick or clear a mountain of debt?
That is the question Woody Allen asks in his dark new movie "Cassandra's Dream," starring Ewan McGregor and Colin Farrell as working class London brothers desperate to get ahead in life.
"It's simply a story of some very nice young people who get caught up, because of their weaknesses and because of their ambitions, in a tragic situation that they bring upon themselves," Allen told reporters in Venice, where his picture is being presented at the annual film festival.
The Oscar-winning U.S. director returns to the theme of ruthless ambition and moral ambiguity which he explored in his 2005 film "Match Point," and said "Cassandra's Dream" reflected his view of life as a "tremendously tragic event."
"I've always felt that life itself, and this is no brilliant observation, is a tremendously tragic event, I mean a real mess," a distinctly downbeat Allen explained.
"I do have a bleak, pessimistic view of life and man's fate, the human condition, but I do feel there are some extremely amusing oases in that morass," the 71-year-old added.
"Cassandra's Dream" tells the story of brothers Ian (McGregor) and Terry (Farrell) and the fateful day they make a pact with their rich uncle, played by Tom Wilkinson.
Ian is an ambitious charmer who falls in love with a beautiful young actress and dreams of a better life in Los Angeles, while Terry has a gambling habit that gets out of control, fuelling his drinking and drug addiction.
Irish-born Farrell, star of "Miami Vice" and "Alexander," said being cast as a frail and vulnerable character racked with guilt was a refreshing change from action hero roles for which he is best known.
"It was really liberating to be able to just concern yourself with capturing moments of the common man, which is what I personally perceive myself much more to be," he said.
"(It was) very liberating to not be playing the hero."
McGregor said Allen's direction was quicker, less deliberate than other filmmakers he had worked with, relying on fewer takes for each scene and demanding extensive preparation.
"It's electric, it's wonderful, you get home at 4:30 in the afternoon, you can have a life, it's quite nice," he said.
Woody Allen unveils 'Cassandra's Dream' at Toronto film festival
Despite more than three dozen films to his credit, legendary movie director Woody Allen insists that he really doesn't work all that hard, is lazy and just got into movies to meet women.
"You'll think I'm being facetious, but I'm not a dedicated filmmaker," he told reporters at the North American premiere of his latest film "Cassandra's Dream."
"I'm lazy. Making films is not the be-all and end-all of my life," he said Wednesday at the Toronto film festival.
He is renowned in the annals of filmmaking for a long list of movies which have been both commercial and popular successes, but while other filmmakers sweat the details, Allen insists he prefers to "shoot and go home and get on with my life."
"I don't have the patience to rehearse with actors ... or to shoot this way and shoot that way," he said, adding that he aspires to spontaneity in his movies.
"I'm not a perfectionist," Allen said. "I like to throw a lot of stuff on the wall and what sticks, sticks, what doesn't, doesn't.
It's been like that from his earliest movies, he insisted.
"I went into films for the most shallow of reasons, to meet women, and so that I wouldn't have a really arduous life of drudgery," he said.
His improvised, unstructured style of movie-making sits well with many of the actors who adore working with Allen, including Irish actor Colin Farrell, who is cast in "Cassandra's Dream" opposite Scotsman Ewan McGregor.
The pair play devoted brothers who clash in their in pursuit of very different goals.
Allen has "absolutely has no technique, which is beautiful," Farrell said. "He's just there to tell a tale."
For his part, Allen credits his actors' "incredible performances" for the success of his more than three dozen films since 1968, including "Annie Hall" (1977), "Hannah and her Sisters" (1986) and "Mighty Aphrodite" (1996).
"They make me look good," he said.
Depicted in popular culture as a fretful neurotic, Allen says in real life he is a centered, grounded family man.
"I just decided that my life is more important, my family, my children, my clarinet-playing, the basketball games, the baseball games, all the shallow stuff of life is more important to me than making a perfect film," he said.
"It's not worth it to brood about films. There are many, many more painful things in life than films."
His movies have typically been made for 15 million dollars or less, compared to the current Hollywood average film budget of 40 million dollars, which may explain why studios were willing to give him as much artistic freedom as he has enjoyed over the years.
"I've been very lucky and a bit of a con man because I spent my whole life in American films and always had complete artist freedom. Nobody read my scripts, no one had anything to say about casting, I always had final cut ... I always said, people thought I was joking, 'The only thing standing between me and greatness is me.'"
Explaining his decision for shooting films in Europe in recent years, rather than his hometown New York City -- which many critics consider to be the true star of many Allen films -- Allen said Hollywood studios lost interest in his work, while financial backers welcomed him with open arms in London, Spain, France and Italy.
"(US) film studios started to say, 'Look, we don't want to just put the money in a brown paper bag and you give us the film, we want to know, what's the film about or who's going to be in it'," he said.
"Then all of a sudden, London called," he said. "They put the money up and they didn't care who was in the film."
i was at the premiere and i really loved it but because of woody, colin and ewan talking before the movie and cracking jokes, the audience was laughing at a lot of moments that weren't intended to be funny. it was a pretty chilling movie.. its essentially woody allen's 'morality play' of the 2000's.
Quote from: MacGuffin on September 12, 2007, 10:34:17 PM
"I'm not a perfectionist," Allen said. "I like to throw a lot of stuff on the wall and what sticks, sticks, what doesn't, doesn't.
he makes it so hard to defend him.
he probably thinks ppl who love Annie Hall need to get over it.
he's what grammy hall would call a 'real jew'.
i find colin farrell's expression on the poster hilarious. especially contrasted with the police tape logo and ewan mcgregor. what i'm trying to say is he's steve urkel.
and P, i was watching a doc/bio about him (allen) featuring a new interview and pretty much all he said in the interview was that he wasn't actually very good and nearly everything that had ever happened to him was "luck". i was peeved.
Quote from: picolas on September 12, 2007, 11:12:38 PM
and P, i was watching a doc/bio about him (allen) featuring a new interview and pretty much all he said in the interview was that he wasn't actually very good and nearly everything that had ever happened to him was "luck". i was peeved.
The usual stuff. He uses the word "luck" a lt. Of course it's luck. You pick up the typewriter and press some buttons without really looking at them and then you have stuff like "Annie Hall", or "Manhattan" or "Zelig" ou "Husbands and Wives". Then he goes to the set and, without thinking twice, he places the camera and you get stuff like some of the shots in "Manhattan", "Interiors" or "Match Point".
I just think he doesn't care what people think about him or his work, but like it is not. Although I don't doubt that he went into filmmaking to meet the ladies.
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New Trailer here. (http://video.aol.com/video/movies-cassandras-dream-trailer-no-1/2013721)
family is family.
woody.. just give it up.
at least the poster is better.
The movie's gonna rock!
Quote from: ElPandaRoyal on November 06, 2007, 09:05:55 AM
The movie's gonna rock!
Yeah, well, it's definitely not woody.
looks good to me.
if they market it at all i think it could do quite well.
Quote from: Just Withnail on November 06, 2007, 10:33:55 AM
Quote from: ElPandaRoyal on November 06, 2007, 09:05:55 AM
The movie's gonna rock!
Yeah, well, it's definitely not woody.
It's not a Woody trailer, but I'm sure it's gonna be a really great Woody movie.
Woody Allen Explains His Love For Scarlett Johansson, Why He Doesn't Do Broadway
'Cassandra's Dream' director calls actress 'very charming, very bright, very amusing.'
By Josh Horowitz; MTV
Write him off or put him on a pedestal, Woody Allen keeps doing what he does best. A new Woody Allen film comes out virtually every year, and the same old discussions begin: "He used to be so good." "He's back!" "Why won't he do another comedy?" And here we go again with "Cassandra's Dream," a drama much more in the vein of "Match Point" than, say, "Sleeper."
In the new flick, Allen once again explores matters of luck and murder most foul with the story of Ian (Ewan McGregor) and Terry (Colin Farrell), two ill-fated brothers who find themselves in a mess of their uncle's (Tom Wilkinson) making.
The legendary quote machine that is Woody Allen spoke with MTV News about his latest work, why he's got a thing for Scarlett Johansson, and why you might see him playing with an iPhone.
MTV: "Cassandra's Dream" is the third film in a row you've done in England. Does it feel like these new locales have revitalized you at all?
Woody Allen: As tempting as it is to think that, it's not really so. I was operating at full energy in New York and then wrote "Match Point" for New York. And then the funding suddenly dropped in from London. Then European nations started calling me to work in their countries. I had an offer to film in France and I had an offer to film in Italy, and I accepted an offer to do a film in Spain. I just completed a movie ["Vicky Cristina Barcelona"] with Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz and Scarlett Johansson in Spain.
MTV: How far back does the idea for "Cassandra's Dream" go?
Allen: I had written an off-Broadway play years ago about a family that was very dependent financially on their uncle. In that play, there was no killing or anything like that. But it occurred to me as I was directing it, what if the uncle came to them and beat them to the punch? When they asked him for a favor, he asked them for one. So that was the germ of the idea.
MTV: There was a report the other day that said you and Scarlett Johansson are going to be a part of a New York anthology film.
Allen: A complete and total fabrication. Made up like a poem by Coleridge. Completely untrue. It wasn't even grounded in any conversations or anything.
MTV: It is true, however, that you and Scarlett have a great working relationship. Why do you think you two click?
Allen: She just dropped into my professional life inadvertently. It was supposed to be Kate Winslet in "Match Point," and at the last minute she was exhausted and called up and said she wanted to back out of it because she'd been doing movie after movie and wanted to spend time with her child. And I understood that completely. I don't think movies should be anyone's top priority. I said, "Sure, no problem." Of course I was faking it, because it was a problem for us. We were trying to figure out who was available for it, and Scarlett happened to be available. This all happened over one weekend. As soon as I met her, I had a very good rapport with her. She's very charming, very bright, very amusing. She livens the set up. The minute she walks on the set, the amperage goes up 200 points. She's a great kid and very talented. She can sing. She can do dramatic things and jokes if you need her to. Whenever there's a part she could play, she would probably always be my first choice.
MTV: Are there any other actors high on your list at the moment?
Allen: I've always wanted to do a film with Reese Witherspoon and Cate Blanchett. They're two people I'm extremely high on. I'd love to find something I could do with them.
MTV: You've said before you don't get offers to act a lot in other people's films.
Allen: Make that never.
MTV: I remember there was talk once though that you were going to co-star with Jim Carrey in "Stuck on You."
Allen: It's the first I'm hearing of it. I've never had a single offer in my long career approaching that. I've done one or two things over the years for no money as a favor. I've never had any real offers. And you would think there are certain parts around that I'd be a natural for: a college teacher, a shrink or a lowlife.
MTV: That's very surprising to me.
Allen: You would think that the parts that Walter Matthau played at this point would come my way. No one asks me to play the father; or Gramps, the lovable old codger; or Pops, the backstage manager at the theater. I've never gotten anything.
MTV: Do you use a computer for anything?
Allen: No. I don't own a computer. I write in longhand, and then I type it up on my Olympia portable typewriter, which I've used since I was 16 years old. It's the same typewriter, and I've typed every single thing I've ever written on it. It works just fine. You wouldn't know that I didn't buy it yesterday.
MTV: So no iPhone or iPod?
Allen: I have an iPhone. Someone put in all my New Orleans jazz music on it so when I go away on a trip I don't have to carry a lot of stuff with me and I can still sit in my hotel room with earphones and practice.
MTV: Speaking of music, I would think that there's been interest over the years in turning some of your films into musical theater.
Allen: It comes up all the time. I've never been overly disposed to it. I've had a million offers on "Purple Rose of Cairo," a million offers on "Bullets Over Broadway," but I've never been overly enthused about it. I feel once I write it and do it, that's it. I don't have to be involved in it. It could be a situation where I simply agree to it and then I see it when it opens and put a bullet through my head. It's not something that really interests me very much.
MTV: Do you have as much interest in acting as you ever had?
Allen: I don't go out of my way to write for myself. I'm too old to be the romantic love interest in a movie, so the fun is sort of out of it.
MTV: Do you have a favorite performance of yours?
Allen: I feel I was equally good and bad in all of them. I can't really act. I do a certain thing. I have a limited range. If you take an actor like Dustin Hoffman or Philip Seymour Hoffman, these guys can play 60 different guys. I have a narrow little thing that I can do that is almost not acting. I can do it and I can do it well because it never ventures into the area of where I'm challenged. It's a limited menu of parts that I can do. I've been good in all my films, but good for me has a ceiling on it.
MTV: So many of your lines have become famous. Does it ever surprise you which ones catch on?
Allen: Yes, it surprises me because I feel I've done any number of lines much more worthy of immortality. For instance, I said years ago, "Eighty percent of life is just showing up." That thing has been quoted 20 million times. It's one of the least-witty things I've ever said. I've said more profound things that have gotten their laughs in movies but have not made it to the pantheon of Bartlett's.
MTV: Is there an underappreciated line we should shine a light on?
Allen: There was line in "Deconstructing Harry": "All people know the same truth; our lives consist of how we choose to distort it." That's a good line that never received any notoriety.
for whatever reason, ebert gave this two stars and kept comparing it to Before the Devil Knows You're Dead and how THAT movie "did it right" and how woody does it very wrong. with this and CMBB, he's completely lost it.
first great movie of 2008 (still haven't seen Untraceable). it's SO crimes and misdemeanors-ish.
oh, and i just watched the trailer and i advise people to avoid it before you see the movie. it's pretty spoilerful.
SPOILERS...
the story has a lot of parallels to landau's in Crimes and Misdemeanors.. but it's a different take on guilt because at the end of C&M, landau gets away with it, whereas in this film the guilt eats away at them until it eventually destoys them. there were a few really heartstopping moments, like when they sneak up to kill burns and he's really friendly to them before they finally do it.. jesus christ. and that last shot was just brilliant.
Quote from: MacGuffin on January 17, 2008, 12:15:25 PM
MTV: You've said before you don't get offers to act a lot in other people's films.
Allen: Make that never.
MTV: I remember there was talk once though that you were going to co-star with Jim Carrey in "Stuck on You."
Allen: It's the first I'm hearing of it. I've never had a single offer in my long career approaching that. I've done one or two things over the years for no money as a favor. I've never had any real offers. And you would think there are certain parts around that I'd be a natural for: a college teacher, a shrink or a lowlife.
MTV: That's very surprising to me.
Allen: You would think that the parts that Walter Matthau played at this point would come my way. No one asks me to play the father; or Gramps, the lovable old codger; or Pops, the backstage manager at the theater. I've never gotten anything.
I concur with the interviewee, it is very surprising.
On the other hand, I could see Woody presented with an offer and he declining or just being too busy to take it.
Everyone always says that bad Woody Allen is still better than good "insert director's name here," but this flick is really testing the limits of that adage.
Quote from: Hedwig on January 19, 2008, 09:31:33 AMand that last shot was just brilliant.
SPOILERS
No doubt. But the whole movie is a damn great achievment. And what's so damn great is that for the first time, Woody actually centers a whole movie on the relashionship between brothers (contrary to the ones about sisters) and it was really spot-on perfect. I mean, I really liked these two kids, and bu the end of the movie, I was heartbroken. Woody nailed it from start to finish, and there is not a single scene that is unnecessary in this. Plus, the acting was amazing, specially Colin Farrell who, I think, gave his best performance ever.
Two scenes that kicked my ass big time: first, when they go to the house and they are ready to kill him, and they see someone else with him. These guys (contrary to the main character in Match Point) are totally clueless about what or how to do it. I don't remember ever being so nervous about a movie before. Then, the actual killing. I dunno, but something about it made it work really well.
But hey, the whole damn thing is so great that I could be naming scenes all night. Great stuff.
All the positives about this movie have already been said, I just will say it's his best in a long time and my second favorite movie of woody's.
is it a predictable movie? I thought match point was good but it just played out so similarly to crimes and misdemeanors that I was glad to have caught it on video instead of on the big screen. What about this one?
i didn't find it predictable but then again, i dont have cinematic ESP like a lot of you freaks...
No, your ESP is limited to deaths of aging celebrities.
I thought it was about as predictable as Match Point. Haven't exactly figured out why I think Match Point is the far superior film...it just is.
Sorry for the delay but I just saw this last night.
SPOILERS.
I'm torn between loving this for the good stuff and hating it for the bad/lazy stuff. The positives that have already been mentioned are true and I agree completely. The relationship between the two brothers, from the page to the direction to the performances is the best thing about the film. They just feel like brothers. Farrell is very good in this, but really everyone is. Tom Wilkinson I think is the one who steals each scene he's in. He gets everything right: the tension, the combination of safety and mistrust his character should inspire, the dark humor...And for the most part the film is very entertaining, focused and engaging. The combination of Woody Allen and Phillip Glass works wonders and that surprised me. I wish he had used more of the music.
However, I do have some major complaints. It feels unnecessarily long and predictable. Everyone knows they're gonna kill the guy, and the tension build towards that moment is awesome, but right after that the whole things starts falling apart. Because it was obvious from the beginning that Farrell was gonna have a crisis and probably be the one who gets eliminated in the end. That whole third act of McGregor "deciding" what to do made me impatient, because I knew what was gonna happen. I mean, too many (3?) scenes of Collin Farrell waking up from a nightmare in the middle of the night.
The scene with the uncle when they make up their minds of killing Farrell suffers from this too. There was nothing for them or us to think about, the outcome was inevitable. And then they go on the boat and I was already bored with the whole thing when the unexpected happened. I just never saw MgGregor dying coming. And I though "awesome! the woodman just pulled the rug on me!". That was a brilliant move. And then he completely kills it by cutting and ending the film AGAIN with a couple of dumbass policemen explaining everything to us. How many times has he done this already and why doesn't he realices is way too cheesy and lazy to work anymore? I felt cheated and pissed off that he didn't show Farrell's suffering more, and even his suicide. I mean that's one huge missed opportunity to end on a highly dramatic, emotional and DIFFERENT note. The final shot of the film is awesome, but it would have been more awesome if it were of the boat wandering alone in the middle of the sea, after both brothers are dead. Coming back to land and to see what the girls were up to was unnecessary and boring from a narrative point of view. The cops explaining what just happened goes from funny (bad funny) to enraging.
That said, this was infinitely better than Before the devil...and yes, the murder scene was the best in the whole film, with the level of intensity the ending should have got.
spoilers throughoutQuote from: Alexandro on July 07, 2008, 01:19:07 PM
The combination of Woody Allen and Phillip Glass works wonders and that surprised me.
my favorite thing about the movie.
Quote from: Alexandro on July 07, 2008, 01:19:07 PM
That whole third act of McGregor "deciding" what to do made me impatient...
me too. the third act suffered greatly do to:
Quote from: MacGuffin on September 12, 2007, 10:34:17 PM
"I'm not a perfectionist," Allen said. "I like to throw a lot of stuff on the wall and what sticks, sticks, what doesn't, doesn't.
Quote from: Alexandro on July 07, 2008, 01:19:07 PM
And then he completely kills it by cutting and ending the film AGAIN with a couple of dumbass policemen explaining everything to us.
yeah, but that's classic Woody. that's him putting his signature at the end.
Quote from: Alexandro on July 07, 2008, 01:19:07 PM
I felt cheated and pissed off that he didn't show Farrell's suffering more, and even his suicide.
i think we saw enough of Farrell suffering, but i agree, it needed something more. not his suicide. something simple, a look from Farrell to the name
Cassandra's Dream painted on the side of the boat... yeah, that's it.
SPOILERS AGAIN
Right after MgGregor explodes in the boat and tragedy ensues, I was totally on the edge not knowing exactly where this was going for the first time in one hour. The fact that it was only minutes, maybe seconds away from the end added to the intensity. Bad enough that he cuts from this to some other uninteresting shit, but to have two characters who never appeared before telling us one of the two leads just commited suicide felt so much like an anticlimax that the only way that it would have worked for me is if this were some sort of crazy rebelious woody allen new shit, but not the same old same old, and certainly not something that he would do just to put "his stamp" on it...It's difficult for me to believe that he does these things to put a stamp on things and not just because he follows certain old rules from old movies. Really, it almost ruins the whole film for me, but I won't allow it, because it truly was good and entertaining despite it's shortcomings.
I also think that having them both die onscreen and float away in that boat would have been a good homage to a certain Ingmar Bergman film.
man, did woody sell his soul to Blockbuster?
(it's a Blockbuster exclusive - i've been waiting for a used rental copy).
i really don't understand the exclusive bit for a film like this that isn't well known publicly.
Quote from: bigideas on October 20, 2008, 02:22:39 PM
man, did woody sell his soul to Blockbuster?
(it's a Blockbuster exclusive - i've been waiting for a used rental copy).
i really don't understand the exclusive bit for a film like this that isn't well known publicly.
All Weinstein Company and subsidiary dvd releases are Blockbuster exclusive. Nothing to do with Woody Allen himself.
Quote from: w/o horse on October 20, 2008, 02:47:22 PM
Quote from: bigideas on October 20, 2008, 02:22:39 PM
man, did woody sell his soul to Blockbuster?
(it's a Blockbuster exclusive - i've been waiting for a used rental copy).
i really don't understand the exclusive bit for a film like this that isn't well known publicly.
All Weinstein Company and subsidiary dvd releases are Blockbuster exclusive. Nothing to do with Woody Allen himself.
ok.
one thing i have noticed - they've had new DVD's of his older stuff marked at $4.99. i got Zelig the other day.
Quote from: bigideas on October 20, 2008, 03:38:14 PM
one thing i have noticed - they've had new DVD's of his older stuff marked at $4.99. i got Zelig the other day.
Big Lots has the two smaller MGM box sets for about $15 each.
This is the only Woody Allen I had to shut off half way through. I always knew Woody Allen was a fan of genres and liked putting his spin on them (my personal favorite is Everyone Says I Love You, a spin on the musical) but this is a tac for tac replication of the mold in which it came from. Too much of the dialogue was dedicated to the plot situation at hand and the character examination that veered off the plot was minimal. It became tiresome to watch so I had to shut it off.
Quote from: The Gold Trumpet on October 20, 2008, 10:11:22 PM
This is the only Woody Allen I had to shut off half way through. I always knew Woody Allen was a fan of genres and liked putting his spin on them (my personal favorite is Everyone Says I Love You, a spin on the musical) but this is a tac for tac replication of the mold in which it came from. Too much of the dialogue was dedicated to the plot situation at hand and the character examination that veered off the plot was minimal. It became tiresome to watch so I had to shut it off.
You really should see the rest. That's when the best character stuff comes, even though I loved all of it.
Quote from: Ravi on October 20, 2008, 03:39:36 PM
Quote from: bigideas on October 20, 2008, 03:38:14 PM
one thing i have noticed - they've had new DVD's of his older stuff marked at $4.99. i got Zelig the other day.
Big Lots has the two smaller MGM box sets for about $15 each.
Thanks!
I only found one of them for $13, but they had tons of great DVd's for $3.
I got The Passenger, Paths of Glory, Talk to Her, Panic Room 3 disc SE, and I couldn't pass up the entire Season One of Who's the Boss even though I wasn't necessarily a huge fan of the show. There were even more though. I figured it would be all direct to DVD type movies like you find at Dollar General.
Quote from: ElPandaRoyal on October 21, 2008, 06:25:49 AM
Quote from: The Gold Trumpet on October 20, 2008, 10:11:22 PM
This is the only Woody Allen I had to shut off half way through. I always knew Woody Allen was a fan of genres and liked putting his spin on them (my personal favorite is Everyone Says I Love You, a spin on the musical) but this is a tac for tac replication of the mold in which it came from. Too much of the dialogue was dedicated to the plot situation at hand and the character examination that veered off the plot was minimal. It became tiresome to watch so I had to shut it off.
You really should see the rest. That's when the best character stuff comes, even though I loved all of it.
Spoiler
I saw until Colin Farrel's character was on the brink of killing himself. Did I really miss much?
spoiler
he's "in the brink" for like the last half hour of the film...
there's nothing even attempting to give you anything new here. the enjoyment you may get out of it is in the acting and the stylistic choices (music, framing) allen may have.
i enjoyed the chemistry between the two brothers, and the darkly sinister yet kinda funny way in which the uncle is played by tom wilkinson. they are all very good at this "cornered animal" behaviour. i wished too it hasn't been all so by the numbers and predictable, because despite of it I was having a very good time watching it.
Quote from: Alexandro on October 21, 2008, 11:42:25 AM
spoiler
he's "in the brink" for like the last half hour of the film...
there's nothing even attempting to give you anything new here. the enjoyment you may get out of it is in the acting and the stylistic choices (music, framing) allen may have.
i enjoyed the chemistry between the two brothers, and the darkly sinister yet kinda funny way in which the uncle is played by tom wilkinson. they are all very good at this "cornered animal" behaviour. i wished too it hasn't been all so by the numbers and predictable, because despite of it I was having a very good time watching it.
SPOILERS!
I really didn't think all of it was predictable and by the numbers. I was constantly in doubt about certain scenes in the movie: were they really going to kill the guy? What's the deal with McGregor's girl? Can we trust her?
Yes, it's a movie more about the chemistry between the people in it, and a study on humans and how far will we go to get what we want. But I think it was also very effective as a thriller and as a tragedy. Also, I think the ending alone is amazing.