Blue Jasmine (2013)

Directed by: Woody Allen

Written by: Woody Allen

Starring: Cate Blanchett, Sally Hawkins, Bobby Cannavale, Alec Baldwin, Peter Sarsgaard

Rated: PG-13

Cate Blanchett gives the best performance of her career as the title character of Woody Allen's modern adaptation of Tennessee Williams's "A Streetcar Named Desire". Positively swallowing the screen, Blanchett is an unstoppable force who, unless she meets her immovable object, will handily win the gold come Oscar time. 

Hearkening back to the classic Hollywood performances of the mid-20th Century, she plays the lofty and delusional socialite, Jasmine, a woman who had it all and lost it through her own doing and is forced to take stock of her life. After losing her house and her crook husband (Alec Baldwin), Blanchett leaves New York to stay with her sister Ginger (Sally Hawkins) and pick herself back up again. Forced back into the real world, the neurotic housewife struggles with Ginger's humbler way of living and works to maintain the insanity that bubbles just under her surface.  

We meet Jasmine on an airplane where she sits gabbing with an older woman on the plane. The lady says nothing as Jasmine talks and talks and talks, recounting her life story, and when they finally reach the airport the old lady takes off while Jasmine tries to get her phone number. From the start there is the fear and vulnerability of a woman who has just suffered a nervous breakdown. Blanchett does nothing to hide the wounded characteristics of her character and certainly Jasmine is not easy company to keep.

Hawkins gives some fine acting as the caring if enabling Ginger who takes her in much to the chagrin of her grease monkey fiance, Chili (Bobby Cannavale). With her help Jasmine goes to school to learn how to use a computer in order to be able to take online classes on interior design. She tries to work, she tries to date, but mostly she tries to reclaim her status. As much as this is a character study about a woman so complicated only Williams could pen her, it is also a very sharp commentary about the excess of the 1%.

Of course that all really comes second to Blanchett's interpretation of Blanche DuBois and the circumstances that lead to an unstable woman's reality shattering around her. On the surface she is the dying heir to those 1940's starlets: shining with a demure refinement, dressed to the nines, and speaking with a hint of a Mid-Atlantic accent that reminds one of her Oscar-winning turn as Katharine Hepburn. And then one sees Jasmine talking to herself, replaying the events of her life before she was given Edison's Medicine, and we realize that behind that porcelain skin and Fendi purse she is a woman keeping her dismembered parts loosely stitched together with Xanax and alcohol. 

A lot of critics have been saying that this is the best Allen film in years, even decades, and that he has finally struck gold with the blackest sort of comedy at a late hour. I'm not as convinced. Aside from a host of great supporting roles and an almost frighteningly committed turn from the star, the film as a whole is kind of a mess. It has no organic flow to it and no suitable direction to it. Unlike its source material it spends a large amount of time showing us where this mysterious hurricane woman came from and how she got to San Francisco. But the background only gets us so far and we wonder where she will end up. Will her lies assert her back into a life of comfort? Can a make believe world become reality if one presents a picture of composure? There is no satisfying conclusion to the movie and I left wanting more.

This isn't to say that it is a bad film. On the contrary, there are too many good parts for this to even have the possibility of being bad. When the plot is derived from one of the greatest plays of the last hundred years, and is refashioned by master of guilt who has a assembled a truly fine cast it is difficult to err. A more linear narrative from Allen might have worked to his benefit though.

I wouldn't even venture to say that he had much to do with Blanchett's acting. Sure the director is wonderful with his actresses, but there is a point when one person's genius ends and the other's begins. What was so startling about her performance was the way in which she played almost two completely different roles yet was always in character. Some scenes had no buildup to a meltdown, yet Blanchett entered as Jasmine and all semblance of "acting" melted away. No warm-up, just delivery.

In all "Blue Jasmine"'s most powerful asset is its ability to be both funny and tragic, sometimes simultaneously. There is little time for lulls and the plot unfolds with the frenetic energy of Jasmine's mind. The project mostly rests on Blanchett's shoulders, and fortunately all involved there is no reluctance from her about holding it up.

3/4