Woody's Cassandra Is So-So

It's pretty good, but Woody Allen's done better. That seems to be the prevailing sentiment of critics reviewing Cassandra's Dream, a tale of two brothers (Colin Farrell and Ewan McGregor) who run into trouble and seek help from their not-so-above-board uncle (Tom Wilkinson). "It's not Allen's weakest work … but its impact is shockingly superficial," the Oregonian's Shawn Levy writes.

Several drew unfavorable comparisons to Sidney Lumet's Before the Devil Knows You're Dead. But Allen "isn't enough of a great dark artist to pull off a full-scale tragedy the way Lumet does," complains the Boston Globe's Wesley Morris. Still, it's "good enough that you may wonder why he doesn’t just stop making comedies once and for all," writes Manohla Dargis in the New York Times. (More Woody Allen stories.)