Movie Review - Blue Jasmine

Blue Jasmine (2013)

Starring Cate Blanchett, Alec Baldwin, Sally Hawkins, Andrew Dice Clay, Bobby Canavale, Michael Stuhlbarg, Louis C.K., Tammy Blanchard, and Peter Sarsgaard

Directed by Woody Allen

Yesterday on the blog, I wrote a review of the cinematic version of A Streetcar Named Desire and I didn't speak too kindly of it.  The overly dramatic nature of the story and the acting didn't sit well with me in the 21st century.  Fortunately, Woody Allen must've agreed with me (at least I like to think that) as his latest film Blue Jasmine is a definite homage to that Tennessee Williams (screen)play.  Mr. Allen is definitely hit or miss with me, but I found his 2013 entry to his canon of work a definite success with a fantastic performance from Cate Blanchett who proves that a character similar to Streetcar's Blanche Dubois can work onscreen.

Blanchett is Jasmine, a woman who lived for over a decade in New York City with her incredibly rich Bernie Madoff-esque husband Hal (perfectly embodied by Alec Baldwin).  Never wanting for anything, Jasmine had everything she could have ever needed and hung out with anyone she could have ever desired.  However, when we first meet her, Jasmine is heading to California to move in with her sister Ginger (Sally Hawkins) thanks to her husband losing all of his fortune and Jasmine losing all the superficial things she held so close for so many years.  Not quite grasping the fact that she's penniless, Jasmine finds herself constantly reminiscing about the past, failing to face her unfortunate current situation.  She left behind her old life (and her birth name of "Jeanette") in order to find what she believed was happiness with Hal, but now that the fairybook life has been shattered, she's unable to face reality.

Blue Jasmine isn't a scene-for-scene re-creation of A Streetcar Named Desire nor are characters carbon copies.  However, the essence of Williams' work is all around Blue Jasmine, but made more believable and relatable...at least to this reviewer.  Perhaps the greatest advance Woody Allen makes is with the character of Jasmine.  In Streetcar, I never felt the crazed Blanche Dubois was a well-rounded character.  (Yes, I realize many think Blanche is one of the best written females in modern playwrighting, but I'm odd.)  I never understood what made her cuckoo and what kept her constantly on edge and scattered.  In Blue Jasmine, I completely comprehended what Allen and Cate Blanchett brought to the screen for Jasmine. By granting the viewers access to Jamsine's life pre-downfall (via Allen's rather engaging way of bouncing back and forth between Jasmine's past and present), there's an understanding as to why Jasmine talks to herself or rambles incessantly.

Blanchett is a powerhouse here.  It's early in the season and I'm well aware I haven't seen many movies this year at this point, but she should absolutely be remembered come awards season.  This is her film and she magnetically carries it from the opening scene.  I found myself almost entranced at certain moments by the way a simple change in the timbre of her voice can carry so much meaning and emotional emphasis for her character or the way a seemingly nonchalant motion of her hand can relay the pain her character feels.  Vivien Leigh did a lot with her hands in Streetcar, but in that film it really felt like someone "acting" as opposed to feeling intrinsically necessary like when Blanchett does the same movements.

The film falters a bit when it places its focus on Jasmine's sister Ginger and a relationship she forms with a stereo salesman (Louis C.K.) she meets at a party.  It's not that Sally Hawkins or Louis C.K. fail to deliver in anyway, but their characters' story fails to materialize into something substantial enough to warrant its presence.  In addition, Michael Stuhlbarg is given a rather hilarious role to sink his teeth into as a dentist who falls hard for Jasmine, but his character is the one person in Allen's screenplay that didn't feel based in reality to me.

Still, Woody Allen definitely has it in him after all these years to craft good work.  Granted, last year's To Rome with Love was a complete bust and I didn't fawn over Midnight in Paris nearly as much as everyone else, but as I've "grown up" I've come to look forward to whatever he brings to the summer moviegoing season.  It may be time to look at his earlier work with which I'm not entirely familiar.

The RyMickey Rating:  B+