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‘Cassandra’s Dream’ and ‘Her Dead Body’: Woody Allen now and (could have been) then By Bob Polunsky
Movie Critid  Ewan McGregor and Colin Farrell star in Woody Allen’s ''Cassandra's Dream.''
He and his brother, Ian (Ewan McGregor), don’t waste time connecting with beautiful girls, and Ian promptly falls in love with Angela Stark (Hayley Atwell), the girl he meets when driving home in a borrowed Jaguar. She doesn’t know that Ian and Terry have constant money problems. They seem too happy-go-lucky, but Terry likes to gamble and likes investing in hotels. Since neither of them has the capital they need to fulfill their desires, they are constantly in a bind.
Their weak-willed father runs a restaurant and can’t help them, so their strong-willed mother tells them to talk to her brother, their Uncle Howard (Tom Wilkinson). All of them think he’s rich.
But Uncle Howard isn’t as successful as they think. When he comes to London to celebrate his sister’s birthday, Terry and Ian ask him for money. He tells them he can’t give them money because he’s got problems of his own. A former business partner intends to testify against him to make sure he does go to jail.
Uncle Howard’s solution seems to be simple, at least to him. He wants his nephews to murder his former partner to get him out of the way.
“Cassandra’s Dream” follows the pattern of Woody Allen’s other London-made movies by relying on more talk than action. He also uses his familiar formula of criminal intent mixed with pangs of conscience to tell a story involving unsavory people. It’s a clever plot ploy, but it doesn’t give the audience characters to identify with a sense of pride. The movie starts with cheerfulness and promise, but, once the characters and plot are firmly set, it turns into stark tragedy.
Although it stars strong actors like Colin Farrell and Ian McGregor, it shows them to be weak characters without substance. It’s difficult to care about them, but it’s interesting to watch them struggle to get out of the hole they dig themselves into. Like Allen’s previous two films about weak-willed characters dabbling in crime in London, “Cassandra’s Dream” celebrates clever writing but downplays character development. It also downplays comedy, the most consistent ingredient in Woody Allen’s earlier films that kept moviegoers in a good mood.
 Eva Longeria is the ghostly wife and Lake Bell the new love in ''Over Her Dead Body''
“Over Her Dead Body” is about a woman (Eva Longoria) who is killed on her wedding day, and her post-earthly efforts to keep her fiancée from getting married to someone else. British playwright Noel Coward used a similar plot for “Blithe Spirit,” a play and movie about a widower running into a stumbling block when the ghost of his first wife shows up to keep him for herself. “Over Her Dead Body” is similar to Allen’s comedies, not his British-based films, so it’s designed to make us laugh, not get uptight.
Studio ratings: Both PG-13
Bob says: “Cassandra’s Dream” 1 1/2 Stars
“Over Her Dead Body” 2 1/2 Stars
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