Film Review: Blue Jasmine

“Anxiety, nightmares and a nervous breakdown, there’s only so many traumas a person can withstand until they take to the streets and start screaming…” – Jasmine

One of my favourite local cinemas, The Gate Picturehouse on Notting Hill Gate, hosted a preview of Woody Allen’s new movie last Sunday starring the exquisite Cate Blanchett – this, following a thoroughly good brunch at Recipease across the road with the girls, made for a thoroughly pleasant afternoon.

Blue Jasmine sees a terrifyingly vulnerable Cate Blanchett pull off one of the most engaging performances of her career, cementing her as definite Oscar bait for 2014. She plays the Chanel adorned, Birkin bag wielding tragic lead to perfection, managing to perform the fine line between playing a depressive without it becoming trying on the audience.

Woody Allen’s new offering is being hailed by critics as one of his very best movies yet; a return to form for Woody. The last film of his that I saw was Midnight in Paris (which I thoroughly enjoyed), but this movie has a different feel – it’s darker and harder. It’s also a move back to America, set in both New York and San Francisco, compared to the European settings of his past few big screen offerings.

Now… Jasmine is blue. She’s very, very depressed. She’s in a fragile mental state and her head’s reeling from the cocktail of anti-depressants and martinis she’s taking. The plot in a nutshell sees extremely privileged Manhattan socialite Jasmine arrive in San Francisco to stay with her sister Ginger (played by the adorable Sally Hawkins) in less humble surroundings than she’s used to.  Her world has crumbled down around her after she finds out about her husband Hal’s numerous affairs and money scams (played effectively by the ever brilliant Alec Baldwin). She’s broke, she has nowhere to go and she’s trying to get back on her feet – as she does this, Allen gives us flashbacks of the high life she once shared in New York with Hal and the disparity between then and now is plain to all.

Despite her best efforts to get herself a job; “I’m going to do an interior decorating course online…but first I need to learn how to use a computer”, Blanchett portrays Jasmine as almost ‘not of this time’ – her regal stature jars with Ginger and her boyfriend Chili (played by Boardwalk Empire’s Bobby Cannavale) and some of the film’s hysterical observational black comedy comes in the scenes that compare Jasmine to this new world she’s found herself in.

Many have been comparing the movie to Tennessee Williams’s ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ and it’s fair to say the parallel does hang over Allen’s portrayal of these sisters, their men and their pasts. There are also some stereotypes here too, as is seen in most of Allen’s films, especially in portraying Jasmine’s wealthy life in Manhattan and in the working class people of Ginger’s world. But mostly the movie is surprising in that you never quite know how it’s going to unfold – and the final tragic scene is perfection.

As a bit of a fashion fiend, I also thought the costume design in the movie was very well thought out. From reading in this month’s Vogue interview that it was actually Blanchett herself who pulled most of the key items, makes this even better. See, Jasmine has clearly lost everything but for her, to be able to keep her one Chanel jacket, her $12,000 handbag and some jewels, it means something to her. Cleverly, the film documents the fact that Jasmine re-wears all of these items, as of course she would do in real life, somehow adding to the aching sadness of her situation.

This film is about a woman in freefall – a woman lost. But it also leaves many questions in the air – should we even care about what happens to Jasmine? Do we feel sorry for her or has she brought it on herself? There is hope at one point when she meets a man who tries to sweep her off her feet – but Jasmine handles that all wrong too, yet somehow managing to earn our compassion. All in all definitely worth a watch, especially if you’re a Woody fan. It’s a very modern re-telling of an American fall from grace – and ultimately one of Allen’s most human and heartfelt movies yet.

Blue Jasmine is released in cinemas this Friday (27 September) in cinemas across the UK.

Watch the trailer here: