After the frothy cappuccino and gelato confection of TO ROME WITH LOVE, BLUE JASMINE (M), the sumptuous main course destined to be among the great Woody Allen films.
Ostensibly set in San Francisco, it’s the riches to rags story of Jasmine, formerly known as Jeanette, whose philandering and fraudulent spouse suicides over investment improprieties leaving her destitute and dependent on the kindness of her sister, Ginger.
Woody often and unabashedly uses classical and classic work as his springboard and his template here is Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire. (Even the beginning of an early stand-up routine begins : “Many, many years ago I was in the nursery school play, when I was a child. I played the part of Stanley Kowalski in the school play of A Streetcar Named Desire, and I was one of the great five years old Stanleys.”)
Befuddled by a constant cocktail of Stoli and Xanax, and haunted by her husband’s personal and business indiscretions, Jasmine is a latter day Blanche DuBois, descending into despair and insanity, despising her sister’s choice of men.
Her sister, Ginger, the Stella of the piece, has a predilection for a succession of Stanley Kowalski types, her first husband, Augie and her present paramour, Chili, are both working class blokes with little in the way of social refinement in Jasmine’s view.
The sisters’ relationship has always been fraught. They were adopted children from different parents and Jasmine was always the more feted – the favoured, golden haired child that left her with a sense of entitlement, a fairytale aspiration that was fulfilled by high flying Hal.
But when Hal falls, this failure fractures Jasmine at a profound psychological level, opening the fissures of her fragility to a gaping hole that threatens to engulf her grasp on reality.
Intrinsically a tragedy, Woody Allen weaves his writer’s magic to create an extraordinary balancing act in which the comedy happily cohabits with the dynamic drama.
Cate Blanchett achieves a personal best in her portrayal of Jasmine and takes a premium place in the pantheon of great female characters in the Woody Allen canon.
Ditto Sally Hawkins as her sister, Ginger, a stellar performance.
As usual, the ensemble cast is impeccable. Alec Baldwin as Hal, Andrew Dice Clay as Augie, Bobby Cannavale as Chili, together with Michael Stuhlbarg as an ardent dentist, Peter Sarsgaard as a potential suitor of Jasmine, and Louis C.K. as a potential suitor of Ginger.
As usual Woody augments, edifies and infuses the film with a selection of jazz standards, most notably Blue Moon, which Jasmine has appropriated as her song. The soundtrack is suffused with titles bearing blues and Lizzie Miles & Sharkey’s Kings of Dixieland’s rendition of A Good Man is Hard to Find provides the movie’s musical refrain.
Allen stalwarts, cinematographer Javier Aguirresarobe, production designer Santo Loquasto, editor Alisa Lepselter, and costume designer Suzy Benziger all lend their accomplished expertise to the proceedings in a picture that deserves and demands audience attendance and award accolades.
BLUE JASMINE opens nationally September 12