A film
review by James Berardinelli for ReelViews.net on August 9, 2013.
It's all
about Cate. Blue Jasmine, Woody Allen's
latest, is a loose reworking of Tennessee Williams' A
Streetcar Named Desire. It's narratively uneven but the occasional lapses
of focus are rescued by Cate Blanchett's
riveting lead performance. The actress' work here is so good that it
effectively launches the 2014 Oscar nomination season. It's hard to imagine
Blanchett not being acknowledged by the Academy for her work here, especially
considering AMPAS' fondness for the writer/director.
In actuality,
this feels less like a Woody Allen film
than anything the director has made since Match Point.
It's another case of Allen diversifying both geographically and stylistically.
Although the screenplay contains elements of dark comedy and is good for a few
(uneasy) laughs, it's far more serious and less whimsical than Allen's usual
fare. He's not on autopilot here. And, although the main character has what could
euphemistically be called mental issues,
she doesn't evidence the usual Allen angst/neuroses. She's too far off the deep
end for that. While Allen's hometown represents the setting for flashbacks that
consume nearly 50% of the running time, the main story transpires in San
Francisco, making this the first instance since the 1970s when the filmmaker's
first-unit production has taken place in a U.S. location outside the New York
City metro area.
Destitute
and disillusioned, Blanchett's Jasmine arrives in San Francisco to move in with
her sister, Ginger (Sally Hawkins).
As houseguests go, it's hard to think of someone worse than Jasmine. After
disparaging Ginger's apartment due to its size and décor, she makes
unflattering remarks about her sister's current boyfriend, Chili (Bobby Cannavale), who, in her opinion,
is only a small improvement over her abusive ex-husband, Augie (Andrew Dice Clay).
Facing
reality is hard for Jasmine. Once the pampered wife of Wall Street wizard Hal (Alec Baldwin), she has seen her entire
life crumble around her. Hal, caught by the FBI for illegal activities, hanged
himself rather than face a life prison term, and the government confiscated
everything, leaving Jasmine without a home or money. Her only option was to
move in with Ginger in a place where she knows no one and in a situation she
believes to be beneath her. Circumstances also demand she get a job - something
she's unfamiliar with. Trophy wife to a
crook isn't a qualification many employers are in search of.
Jasmine
is a brilliantly multi-layered character. Although she's not an anti-hero in
the traditional sense, she does harm wherever she goes, sometimes through
ignorance and sometimes because she's too shallow to care. But she's a deeply
tragic person and we often see this. She's subject to panic attacks and
resembles a drowning woman clutching at straws. The façade she shows to others
is brittle and easily shattered; beneath it is a sad and desperate woman.
Allen
has surrounded Blanchett with a group of expert supporting players: the
always-reliable Sally Hawkins who, like the star, has adopted an American
accent; Peter Sarsgaard playing a
potential suitor who's unaware of Jasmine's past; and Alec Baldwin comfortably
essaying the smooth operator, whose conniving and infidelity pave the path to
his downfall. If there's a surprise, however, it's Andrew Dice Clay. Making his
first motion picture appearance in more than a decade, the once bad-boy
comedian shows both acting chops and screen presence as one half of the role
that was Stanley in Streetcar.
The way
Allen has chosen to restructure Williams' play considerably reduces the most
memorable aspect of Streetcar:
the Blanche/Stanley dynamic. Here, with Stanley split in two (Clay is Ginger's
ex-husband and Bobby Cannavale is her current boyfriend), there's not much
juice in that interaction, and no sexual tension whatsoever. By default, this
becomes Blanche/Jasmine's movie and the narrative drifts aimlessly along with
her. Blue Jasmine is an
exercise in examining the lead character's mental degeneration. The end result,
a performance-driven character study, offers an experience more akin to what
one might expect from the late John Cassavetes than from the still very much
alive Woody Allen.
Labels:
comedy, drama
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