Seed NewsvineBeing Rescued Is Not Very Wicked
Oh what a shame. "Cassandra's Dream," Woody Allen's masterful and grossly underrated new film is only one day away from finishing it's limited 7-day run here in downtown Chicago. I went to see the film on a whim last night. I'm grateful I did.
In many ways a companion piece to both "Crimes and Misdemeanors" and "Matchpoint," "Cassandra" is a bold step forward by Allen in surveying the tragic lifecycle of human beings and how ultimately what we want doesn't really matter. Life has a way of unfolding in diabolical ways and cynical power upheavals. Not even Hannah Montana can outrun this fact.
Ewan McGregor and Colin Farrell excel as brothers desperate for a way out of debt and class immobility. Tom Wilkinson shows up in the second act of the film as the insanely rich uncle who needs a muscular favor from the two, in exchange for financial salvation and security.
I enjoyed this film thoroughly. I'm still shocked to find its slew of lukewarm reviews all over RottenTomatoes.com but I guess not everyone can look at the same work of art and see the real work come forward at them. That's fine. I enjoyed Philip Glass' brusing and forceful score which lent a sense of urgency throughout the entire film, that lacked in "Matchpoint" up until its closing passages.
And that ending. It's rather common lately that final scenes in great movies piss people off. Audiences hated the tepid, and quiet closing scene of "No Country For Old Men." Some audience members were offended by the last scene of "There Will Be Blood." And here also, Allen whips out another unconventional ending that is so bare bones and abrupt I damn near jumped out of my seat in admiration for the balls it took to end it like that.
That's life. It's no dream.
