Good performances but a plodding plot in Woody Allen's 'Cassandra's Dream'

When we think of Woody Allen, we remember such classics as "Annie Hall," "Manhattan," "Crimes and Misdemeanors," "Broadway Danny Rose" and "Love and Death." His latest film, "Cassandra's Dream," will not make the list of masterpieces by one of the most prolific writers of the nearly lost art of dialogue. Still, even middling Woody is worth a look.

"Cassandra's Dream" has waited so long to get a local booking that it has already been forgotten on the front lines. It's not typical Allen in that, unlike his more profound works, it relies on plot rather than dialogue.

Plotting was never one of his strong points. He has a gift for ultra-smart references that tend to deal with such profound things as the meaning of life. He's particularly obsessed with death. In "Cassandra's Dream," he's more concerned with murder than death - a melodramatic turn.

This is his third film shot in, and about, London since he turned his back on his beloved New York City. Clearly, he isn't as at home. His central characters are two working-class brothers with big dreams.

Ewan McGregor plays the ambitious one who wants to get rich quick and live in Hollywood. He also is obsessed with a small-time London actress who plays bedroom scenes in a small theater. Because he's driving a borrowed sports car, she thinks he's rich. He encourages the mistake.

Colin Farrell, much publicized as a bad boy on the celebrity front, is cast against type as the more shy and confused brother. He works as an auto mechanic but would like to open a sports shop of his own.

The brothers' only hope at getting the money they need is from their rich uncle, played with his usual reliability by Tom Wilkinson. The only catch is that Uncle Howard wants them to commit a murder. They are particularly ill-equipped, emotionally and physically, for such an undertaking.

"Cassandra's Dream" is a crime drama with little hints of absurdist humor. Its straightforward, relentless plotting seems a bit plodding after a while.

The performances are great, particularly Farrell's portrayal of the moral but less sharp brother. Coming on top of a good performance in "In Bruges," Farrell is becoming one of our best character actors - not just a pretty boy.

McGregor is good, too, but in a less flamboyant role. Newcomer Hayley Atwell is interestingly off-center as the actress whom we always suspect is taking poor McGregor for a ride. She is not a great beauty, but it's easy to see why this working-class guy is captivated by the arty crowd she runs with.

This could be the first Woody Allen movie that has used an original musical score, quite an astounding fact after more than 35 movies. Allen's films, as we recall, have used incidental music and often standard old tunes, but this full dramatic score is attributed to the usually distracting Philip Glass. His music, traditionally, uses repetition to create suspense (as in "The Hours"). Here, he is less obtrusive.

Allen made a major comeback three years ago with a similar crime melodrama called "Match Point," also set in London - one of his best in years. The hero was a successful, and quite heartless, criminal. The two brothers here have consciences and are steeped in the kind of guilt that the writer-director clearly has borrowed from Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment."

We miss the witty and illuminating lines that usually come with a Woody Allen script. What we get with "Cassandra's Dream" is largely monotonous and simplistic.