A film review by Craig J. Koban September 4, 2013 |
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BLUE JASMINE
Cate Blanchett as Jasmine / Sally Hawkins as Ginger / Alec Baldwin as Hal / Peter Sarsgaard as Dwight / Louis C.K. as Al / Alden Ehrenreich as Danny / Andrew Dice Clay as Augie / Bobby Cannavale as Chili / Michael Stuhlbarg as Dr. Flicker Written and directed by Woody Allen |
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Perhaps
unlike his previous few efforts, BLUE JASMINE offers hearty laughs
alongside excruciating pathos. It
concerns a woman of relative power, wealth, and social influence that has
a fall from grace and then slowly descends into mental breakdown.
There seems to be very few films these days that seem to tackle
human frailty and psychosis – and does so by mixing that with themes of
class tension. Oh, and the fact
that BLUE JASMINE also manages to be pretty amusing at the same time is a
testament to Allen’s skills at homogenizing all of the divergent
material and tones. BLUE
JASMINE may not be the sublime Allen of old, but it certainly represents a
fiercely ambitious film for him on a thematic level, so much so that
you’re almost willing to forgive him for the few missteps he makes along
the way. The
film’s title is a partial allusion to its main character,
Jasmine (Cate Blanchett), who was once an extremely wealthy Manhattan
socialite who lived a lifestyle of extravagant luxuries with her
entrepreneur husband, Hal (Alec Baldwin).
They had everything: yachts, designer clothes, jewellery, mansions,
and a group of equally well-off friends.
Unfortunately, Hal’s business dealings were less-than-ethical,
which caused him to be arrested and sent to prison.
Drowning in debt by her husband’s lawyer fees, Jasmine is left
relatively penniless and with nowhere to go.
She has no job and no real skill set…unless being rich and doing
relatively nothing because you are rich could be considered a skill.
Downtrodden
and embarrassed by the whole fiasco of her husband’s activities, Jasmine
decides to head to San Francisco to move in with her blue-collar sister,
Ginger (Sally Hawkins) in an effort to try to pull herself out of
financial hot water. Things
don’t start off to a good start for Jasmine, mostly because she is not
impressed by her sibling’s more downscale dwelling, but perhaps more so
because he admonishes her for her choice in boyfriends.
Ginger’s ex-husband, Augie (Andrew Dice Clay) was not among
Jasmine’s favorite people, let alone her newest boyfriend, Chili
(Bobby Cannavale), who is just a small improvement.
Jasmine, alas, needs a job, but she possesses very little
qualifications for most positions, and she ends up working for a slimy
dentist (Michael Stuhlbarg), who yearns to have her be more than just an
assistant to him. Jasmine’s
life does manage to markedly improve when she hooks up with a wealthy
Californian with aspirations of seeking a Congressional seat, Dwight
Westlake (Peter Sarsgaard), who finds himself falling hard and fast for
the easy-on-the-eyes Jasmine. Just
when their happiness – and strong potential for future marital bliss –
seems to be on the horizon, Jasmine’s inner struggles with emotional
instability (not to mention her penchant for booze and pill popping and an
inability to tell the truth) begins to creep up on her and ruin what
chance she has for happiness. She
crashes hard, and at this point we begin to really see just how
psychologically far she has broken from reality. It
has been said that BLUE JASMINE is a thinly veiled ode to A STREETCAR
NAMED DESIRE, and I can certainly see it.
Jasmine’s sister, for instance, has to choose between two crude
and monosyllabic men, Augie (an insanely and unexpectedly decent Clay)
and Chili (Cannavale can play loveably dimwitted brutes with the best of
them). Jasmine herself is
also kind of patterned off of Blanche Dubois as someone who seems to think
very highly of herself and has a low opinion of those beneath her.
One of the more appealing aspects of the film is how well Allen
seems to understand the class milieu here – and how the classes often
conflict with one another - of all of his characters.
Moreover, he manages to give each persona in BLUE JASMINE a
distinct and clear voice, which only further adds to the rich tapestry of
the film. The
film becomes that much more enthralling, though, because of Blanchett’s
tour de force and never-look-back performance.
What’s kind of incredible is that Blanchett makes Jasmine both an
identifiable victim as well as a loathsome heel of a woman, which is a
tricky performance dichotomy to pull off effectively.
Jasmine is not really a heroine or an anti-heroine, per se, as she
more or less occupies a decidedly more compelling middle ground between
the two. On one hand, she’s
a snobby elitist that you just want to slap, but conversely she’s also a
deeply naïve and overly trusting woman that lets her own vanity-pursuing
life goals get in the way of seeing what a stone-cold criminal her husband
was. The tragedy of her
character is that she also grows crazier by the minute, wickedly going
from one disparaging and self-delusional mood swing to the next.
You feel for Jasmine’s anguish and hopelessness (no woman
deserves to be sexually assaulted by her employer), but it’s so easy to
condemn her for her callous attitudes towards her working-class family
members that are just trying to support her.
There are just so many complicated textures to Jasmine, and
Blanchett will surely net an Oscar nomination for her searing work here. The
other performances are solid too, especially by Jenkins, who brings a
soulful authenticity to Jasmine’s sister who too is going through her
own thorny relationship woes. It’s
also kind of a treat to see Sarsgaard – for once in a long while – not
play a reptilian creep. Andrew
Dice Clay may be the most shockingly revelatory actor in the film, as he
is able to imbue in Augie a tangible level of anger, resentment, and
vulnerability all at the same time. Baldwin’s
Hal, unfortunately, is simply not in the film enough – nor is he very well
rounded as a character – for his performance to hold up to his fellow
cast members. The story of Hal’s marriage is largely told through a very
awkward series of flashbacks and flashforwards, which proves to be very
jarring at first. A much more
straightforward and liner script from Allen may have made for a better
sensory experience that what’s on display here. Yet, Allen yet again demonstrates how articulate he is at directing a film of precise and pleasing economy while writing memorable characters that resonate deeply with sharp dialogue and empowered performances. The idiosyncratic impulses of Allen are here on display, to be sure, but BLUE JASMINE feels, I dunno, much less Allen-ian than many of his previous outings. Despite being frequently hilarious and having fun at Jasmine’s expense, the film finds darkness and despair with her predicament. It’s noteworthy that this “comedy” concludes not with a laugh, but with a scene that’s agonizingly heartbreaking, which also serves to showcase just how much Blanchett has eerily immersed herself in her role. |
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