Ewan McGregor wears an unidentified watch

In a sunlit London garden, Ewan McGregor's Ian leans in close and wraps an arm around his brother Terry, played by Colin Farrell, who sits hunched over in a denim shirt with his head bowed. It is a tender moment in a film with little tenderness left in it. Cassandra's Dream is Woody Allen's 2007 London crime drama, the third he shot in the city, and it puts the two Blaine brothers on a slow road toward murder. Ian wants to invest in California hotels and Terry is drowning in gambling debts, and their wealthy uncle Howard, a plastic surgeon played by Tom Wilkinson, offers to clear their problems if they kill a former partner about to testify against him. Hayley Atwell plays Angela, the actress Ian falls for and tries to impress, and Sally Hawkins plays Kate.

As Ian holds his brother, a steel-cased chronograph rides on his left wrist, on a steel link bracelet, half-tucked under his cuff. The dial is turned away and reads only as expensive steel, no brand or model legible, which suits Ian exactly. He is a man performing a version of success he cannot quite afford, the sort who would put a sports chronograph on his wrist before he has the bank balance to match it. There is a quiet joke in the casting. Off screen, McGregor is a genuine watch enthusiast who later spent years as a tester and ambassador for Bremont, which makes the gap between the man and his fictional striver feel almost private.