Hi everyone!
I went to see the new Woody Allen film "Blue Jasmine" last night. After all of the critical acclaim the film has been receiving I was expecting to really be blown away by it. I've been a Woody Allen fan for years. And while not all of his films have been particularly good, I can usually find something in even the worst Woody Allen film to commend. "Blue Jasmine" proves no exception.
For those of you who follow cinema, you're probably all aware of the basic premise of the plot: Jasmine (played by Cate Blanchett) is the former wife of a Bernie Madoff-type New York financier and businessman played rather effortlessly by Alec Baldwin. His Ponzi scheme is exposed -- in addition to dozens of extramarital affairs -- and Jasmine's privileged way of life falls to ground. She loses everything. In an effort to start picking up the pieces, she moves to San Francisco to live with her downtrodden, very working-class adopted sister, Ginger, played by a tremendously affecting Sally Hawkins (probably best known for her work in British director Mike Leigh's film "Happy Go Lucky" for which she received an Oscar nomination a few years back.) Jasmine is a mess -- swilling vodka and popping pills and pretty much unapologetic for her husband's gross financial misconduct, victims of which were Ginger and her now ex-husband, a surprisingly good Andrew Dice Clay.
Jasmine, as played by Ms. Blanchett, is in many respects an homage to Blanche du Bois. Ginger is Stella and Ginger's new boyfriend, Chili (a terrific Bobby Carnavale) resembles a somewhat more benign Stanley Kowalski. There's also a Gentleman Caller (Peter Sarsgaard) who offers Jasmine the chance of a return to her former lifestyle despite the fact that everything he knows about her is predicated on lies.
Ms. Blanchett is a wonder. You can't take your eyes off of her. And although Jasmine is a monster, Ms. Blanchett infuses her with such bittersweet compassion and tragic desperation you cannot help but sympathize with her. In the role of Jasmine's sister, Ms. Hawkins is spirited and human and sad and all the more tragic for approaching her lot in life with optimism and an almost defiant aplomb. Ms. Hawkins has a couple scenes toward the end of the film that, for me, come close to stealing the show from Ms. Blanchett who is undoubtedly the focus of the film. Come Oscar nomination time, these two amazingly talented actresses should receive huge notice.
And yet....and yet...despite these wonderful performances, the film doesn't really work for me. I'm frustrated because I can't put my finger exactly on what it is that I feel makes the film miss its mark. The flashback sequences portraying the unraveling of Jasmine's elite Park Avenue life ring hollow. Others scenes -- particularly an attempted seduction in a dentist's office that is broadly comic and yet uncomfortably invasive -- seem clumsily staged. And the re-emergence of Andrew Dice Clay's character in the scene that solidifies Jasmine's downward spiral in the last fifteen minutes of film feels contrived and a little too pat.
Ultimately, "Blue Jasmine" is a tragedy. All the classic Woody Allen traits are here -- the neuroses, the pithy one-liners, etc. -- yet nothing is particularly funny. I think this is definitely by design and this is not my criticism of the film. I think my problem is that it's neither here nor there. Is this is a commentary on corrupt Wall Street hubris and greed? Class warfare? I don't know. What I do know is that the performances of Cate Blanchett and Sally Hawkins are extraordinary and the film deserves to be widely recommended for this if for no other reason.
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