PopFilter Goes to the Movies
Blue Jasmine
This year’s submission of Woody Allen’s annual railing against wealthy pseudointellectuals is “Blue Jasmineâ€, the story of a woman recently single, recently broke, and recently nervously broken-down. The titular Jasmine (Cate Blanchett) moves to San Francisco to live with her adopted sister to recover from the collapse of her life. There, she attempts to remain poised and seem wealthy while confronting the embarrassments of lower-middle class life.
Never content to tell a straight forward story, Allen shifts between the current timeline and Jasmine’s former life in New York. The flashbacks pull double duty by fleshing out Jasmine, letting the audience see her patronizingly revel in all of her glory. They also show specific points on her path to ruin, giving us insight into the events that brought her so low. What stands out about the shifts is upon returning to the present, we see time hasn’t stopped for the characters. Jasmine relives her memories in real time, and those around her are incredibly aware of her reveries. This coupled with the plot jumping randomly forward leaves the actual amount of time of Jasmine’s current situation up in the air. It could be weeks, months, or even longer. This handily encapsulates the trap of timelessness she’s so afraid of in her new life.
At times, the structure the movie feel like a string of sketches connected by reoccurring characters and themes. The broadness of many of the characters only heightens this sketch atmosphere. None are purely caricatures, but often remain types rather than fully-fledged individuals. While this is one of the film’s weaknesses, it isn’t as hindered as it could have been, due to the stellar casting. Blanchett absolutely nails it by grounding what could have been a hysterical mess of a performance, rather than a performance of a hysterical mess. She injects a cringe-inducing humanity into the character without making her overly sympathetic. The rest of the cast rises to her level, and it’s the acting that elevates thr rougher material. If Allen slowed his process, and spent more time on the writing, it could have brought a good movie to greatness.-MG