I think a lot of people would agree that it is just a matter
of time that Cate Blanchett and Woody Allen would work together. The end
product of this collaboration is “Blue Jasmine” with Cate Blanchett playing the
lead title. Strangely enough Woody Allen is not in this movie. Woody has stuck to his director’s chair
this time and let the actors loose. The end product is a mostly bitter sometime
sweet story that has a strangely strong “A Streetcar Named Desire” feel.
Jasmine played by Cate is trying to pull her life back
together after the break down of her marriage to Hal (Alec Baldwin). Not being
able to afford the luxurious lifestyle that she was used to she decided to move
to San Francisco to start afresh. The only person she could depend on was her
sister Ginger (Sally Hawkins) whom she always felt superior to. As mentioned
earlier, the premise is strangely similar to Tennessee William’s “A Streetcar
Named Desire”. From the moment of Jasmine arriving at that run down San
Francisco neighbourhood, to her not taken to Ginger’s fiancé and group of
friends, to Jasmine drinking problem and eventually mental issues, they are all
strange familiar. This feeling is particularly strong if you had seen Cate
playing Blanche in the Sydney Theatre Company production of “Streetcar”. There
are certain scenes that you felt like they were Blanche all over again.
This doesn’t mean that “Blue Jasmine” is unoriginal or bad; it
could be just a coincidence. Cate Blanchett delivered some great performances
with ease. That is what I like about Cate (as with Maggie Smith). She always
made acting looks so easy and comfortable. You would not doubt that Cate is
Jasmine and she being the person being torn apart by past, present and future was
just meticulously crafted. Woody Allen managed to thread together a complex
relationship between Jasmine and Ginger, although at times I do feel that the
associations were quite detached, which is true between Jasmine and Ginger as
after all they were not real sister and have gone different ways when they grew
up. Jasmine calculations and determination to get back to the upper class and
at the same time dragging her sister along so that she could find a better life
was both bitter and sweet. Although at times I do suspect that her intentions to
make sure Ginger finds a better man was for Ginger not to embarrass her instead
of really caring about Ginger’s life.
There are some great scenes throughout the movie, and I
particularly liked Jasmine’s baby-sitting scene at the diner. Cate Blancheet
without a doubt nailed that scene perfectly. It is a Woody Allen movie, so
without a doubt there are lots of Woody Allen humour littering across the
script, which I personally do appreciate. I do think that Woody Allen is one of
the few people who could manage to make a movie funny without getting overly
physical. However, there were
times that I felt Cate Blanchett style of acting did not quite fit into the
Woody Allen’s universe. I am not saying that Cate did a bad job or Woody Allen
did a bad job. Everything was well done from both Cate and Woody’s perspective.
They both delivered great things, but there were still times that the two great
styles did not fit into each other. Maybe it was Cate intense character
creation in certain scenes that missed the mark of Woody’s typical emotional
but still light-hearted style. For me Woody could be telling something
extremely depressing but under that depressing visage he always saw a sense of
humour in it. In “Blue Jasmine”’s case I personally sometimes felt that Cate’s
intensity overtook the humour side. There were still great moments;
I particularly think that the quarrel scene between Ginger and Chili (her fiancé)
with Jasmine in the background was just spectacularly done. Everyone was trying
to talk over each other but at the same time the discourse just fit into the
whole scene and story perfectly.
As with most Woody Allen movies, “Blue Jasmine” came with a
great soundtrack that fits into the movie’s world perfectly. It was a joy to
listen to the soundtrack as the story played out on the screen.
For me “Blue Jasmine” is like a dish of mostly perfectly
cooked fried rice with just a few burnt pieces. The experience might not be completely
perfect but it is still an extremely tasty dish.
