
The unparallelled Cate Blanchett as Jasmine
Emotions make us human yet when uncontrolled they can ruin our life. Woody Allen’s new film Blue Jasmine is a convincing illustration of that.
Jasmine, breathtakingly performed by Cate Blanchett, used to live a problem-less superficial life, a fairy tale. She met her husband in her teens, he swept her off her feet and she dropped out of college. Jasmine remembers Blue Moon, a tune recurring throughout the movie, a password for her to enter the sweet delirium, the memories of her cloudless marriage.
Now she’s broke, moves in with her sister, and as the story develops we learn that she brought all the misfortunes on herself. When the reality became incompatible with her fairy tale, Jasmine exploded and burnt everything around her. In the end of the film, this happens again. Why? Why doesn’t she learn from her mistakes? Isn’t this a fundamental flaw of ours – to step on the same shovel all over again?
The film is a lot deeper and multi-layered, and I touched just a nuance of it here. Out of purely cinematic pleasure I need to point out nice work of the supporting cast – Sally Hawkins as Jasmine’s sister, Ginger, and Alden Ehrenreich as Jasmine’s step-son, Danny. A bubbly, charismatic performance of Bobby Cannavale playing Ginger’s boyfriend is another bright streak in this tragicomedy. Blue Jasmine is an instant classic and Woody Allen (turning 78 on December, 1st) is still in his top shape. A remarkable achievement.