Cassandra's Dream is a 2007 crime thriller drama film written and directed by Woody Allen.

[7] Brothers Terry and Ian, who live in South London, were raised by their father, Brian, who runs a restaurant, and their mother, Dorothy, who taught her sons to look up to their uncle Howard, a successful plastic surgeon and businessman.

While driving home from a day's sailing in a borrowed car, Ian crosses paths with actress Angela Stark, with whom he becomes infatuated.

Howard faces imprisonment for unspecified crimes and his future is threatened by Burns, a former business partner who plans to testify against him.

To kill Martin, Ian and Terry eventually decide to make zip guns, untraceable and easily destroyed.

Ian is content to move on as if nothing happened, but Terry is consumed by guilt and begins abusing alcohol and other drugs.

The website's critics consensus reads, "Colin Farrell and Tom Wilkinson act up a storm in Cassandra's Dream, but Woody Allen's heavy-handed symbolism and foreshadowing drains the plot of all tension.

[11] Damon Wise of Empire magazine concluded that Cassandra's Dream was "[a] clumsy, clichéd morality play that may actually represent the lowest point of Allen's recently chequered career.

"[12] Paul Jordan also compared the film to a morality play—but considered that praise: "Allen gets past the guard of a modern audience which would not have taken seriously the appearance of a Mephistopheles or an Old Scratch.

Uncle Howard is a chilling 21st Century Tempter, fulfilling the heart's desire in return for murder and leading his nephews to terrible perdition.

"[13] In his "Best of the Decade" article, New Yorker critic Richard Brody called Cassandra's Dream one of the best films of the 2000s: "Few aging directors so cogently and relentlessly depict the grimly destructive machinery of life, and every time the word 'family' is uttered, the screws tighten just a little more.