Blue Jasmine’s Fall from Grace

Woody Allen has evolved from writer/director and sometime actor of comedies to dark dramas and various permutations.  Besides being one of the most prolific artists in moviemaking history, most of his films have been marked by strong storylines populated with colorful characters, sharp dialogue, and often ironic endings. Blue Jasmine is the latest film to showcase Allen’s talent (yes at 77 he is very much in command of his medium), and he gets a bravura performance by Cate Blanchett.

Jasmine (Blanchett) is a flamboyant soul who is flying from New York to San Francisco to stay with her sister, Ginger (Sally Hawkins).  Married to a successful businessman, Hal (Alec Baldwin), Jasmine has a life of high society and wealth.  But Hal is not what he seems, and she experiences the fallout from his womanizing and crooked investments.  This sets off a chain reaction of loss for the now penniless wife and mother.  Now dependent on the kindness of her sister who lost a life savings courtesy of Hal, she tries to find employment at a dentist office and take classes to find a career.  She is desperate and dependent on others, and when she meets Dwight (Peter Sarsgaard), the man of her dreams, the only thing between herself and nirvana is her hidden past.

How to describe Jasmine? She is self absorbed, selfish, despondent, manic, alcoholic, vain, delusional, traumatized, judgmental, spoiled, and above all, depressed.  She is oblivious to the obvious and in denial of her reality.  Mentally unhinged and humiliated, she is a walking contradiction who indulges in lies and babbles to herself.   

The film employs stream of consciousness flashbacks that may seem abrupt at first, but you quickly see the device as a rapid succession of background information on how Jasmine’s life has been filled with status and means only to devolve as Hal’s philandering history is revealed. 

Allen has a gift for observing and depicting real people in conflict.  Both sisters come from different walks of life.  Both yearn for happiness, and yet when Jasmine falls on hard times, Ginger is there for her despite a rocky history together. There are obvious class divisions between the rich and poor, and the irony here is that Jasmine is now one of the latter.   There are obvious parallels to A Streetcar Named Desire, but Jasmine just might be more disturbed than Blanche DuBois.  In fact a case can be made that Jasmine will evolve into a character not unlike Judi Dench’s pathetic spinster in Notes on a Scandal (also starring Blanchett). 

Kudos go to the usual Allen ensemble of top performers particularly Hawkins as the charitable sibling and Baldwin as a Bernie Madoff /Casanova.  Andrew Dice Clay has a supporting role as a man from Ginger’s past who figures prominently later, and Louis C. K. is convincing as a romantic suitor who diverts Ginger from her boyfriend Chili (Bobby Cannavale).  But Blanchett inhabits her role in an eerie way; you believe her and all her quirks and mannerisms.  She is a mess of a person, and her struggles to find happiness and financial security are fleeting.  It’s the sort of performance that earns an actress the Oscar.

It is nice to see Allen expand his films’ settings from his traditional New York environs to other locales, lately Europe and now San Francisco.  The film is beautifully shot in New York and California by Javier Aguirresarobe (Vicki Cristina Barcelona).  As usual, Allen employs period songs to accent a mood or scene especially the ironic tune “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”. 

As with the best Allen dramas like Interiors, Crimes and Misdemeanors and Match Point, the lead characters are imperfect people with serious problems, and it causes them to do desperate things that don’t always work.  Allen does not always have happy endings in his dramas, and you get the impression that this story may not end well.  Life can be cruel, and in Blue Jasmine, how we deal with it can be a tortuous journey.

***1/2 of ****stars