I have experienced the same trouble. A Windows 7 64-bits laptop (i7 from work) running VMware player 5.0.2 build-1031769 (problem existed with 5.0.1 too) and a 64-bit Cinnamon 14 guest (my weapon of choice for private moments). I have found two workarounds, but it's sub-optimal.
Disabling Accelerate 3d graphics in Virtual Machine Settings makes Cinnamon work again, or picking Cinnamon 2D at login.
This is just a work-around as things do get painfully slow sometimes. Has anyone got any idea where to look at? Is it X.org? Is it a Cinnamon-thing?