Movie Review: "Blue Jasmine"

"Blue Jasmine": A.  Allow me to make this bold prediction right off the bat.  It will take a jaw-dropping performance for someone other than Cate Blanchett to win the Best Actress Award at next year's Oscars ceremony.  She is brilliant in her portrayal of Jasmine, a riches-to-rags widow who flies cross-country to San Francisco to seek pity and lodging from her earthier, uninhibited, low-brow sister, Ginger (Sally Hawkins). Blue Jasmine is the latest offering from director Woody Allen, whose M.O. is to release one film a year. This movie has the familiar Allen film characteristics.  The base story is quite simple, but the characters are so rich that all kinds of tentacles spread out from that core.  There is humor in serious scenes, and vice versa. The music is both appropriate and catchy, the pace is brisk and the running time a little shorter than average. Also notable about Allen movies is that, notwithstanding 1977's Annie Hall, the ones in which Woody does not appear are superior to those in which he does.

The movie is split into happenings at two locations, San Francisco and New York City.  The former is the site for the present day story.  Jasmine is surprised at the very common, modest house in which Ginger lives. She tells Ginger that she is flat broke, and needs to crash at Ginger's pad for the foreseeable future, while she attempts to start a new life.  That will be a difficult row to hoe, as Jasmine has no marketable skills.  She puts up with Ginger's rambunctious sons, but it doesn't take more than a few seconds for Jasmine to disapprove of Ginger's boyfriend, the uncouth garage mechanic, Chili (Bobby Cannavale).  Such behavior is consistent with Jasmine's track record, as she was always putting down Ginger's ex-husband, blue collar Augie (Andrew Dice Clay).  Jasmine's attitude toward Chili is plainly visible.  At first Chili tries to shrug it off, but pretty soon the feeling is mutual.  Chili was all set to move in with Ginger, but now with Jasmine hunkered down there without any viable exit strategy, Chili has reason to be resentful.

How did Jasmine get to such a sorry state of affairs?  That part of the tale is told with flashbacks set in and around New York City.  In happier times, Jasmine was married to Hal (Alec Baldwin), a wheeler-dealer financial manipulator who employs a legal team to keep his company slightly ahead of the bare securities regulations pronounced by the federal government.  Jasmine lives the good life, residing in a mansion, dripping with jewels, shopping in the swank stores, eating in the best restaurants and socializing at the chic clubs.  She proudly tells her friends that she is happy to let Hal take care of their financial future, and doesn't care to know the ins and outs of his business affairs.  Before the movie is half over, however, we find out that Hal is a philandering crook.  When the Feds catch up with him, he is jailed and Jasmine is rendered penniless.

Another level of complication evolves from a private party which Jasmine and Ginger attend at an estate on the shores of San Francisco Bay.  Jasmine strikes up a conversation with the smooth and debonaire Dwight (Peter Sarsgaard), a foreign services professional with aspirations of someday running for political office. Embarrassed by her past, and even more so by her current circumstances, Jasmine tells Dwight she's a widowed interior designer whose clients include the rich and famous folks living in The Hamptons. Meanwhile, Ginger hooks up with Al (Louis C.K.), temporarily and conveniently forgetting that she is engaged to Chili.

As we sense that the movie is nearing its completion, there are still a few revelations to be made.  I won't say that the end is shocking, but the story does not exactly finish the way that most viewers would predict.  That aspect of storytelling is a big plus in my book, especially considering that nothing preposterous needs to occur to achieve the level of resolution that Allen, the author of the script, desires.

Sally Hawkins, a British actress whom I've never seen on film before, makes Ginger the perfect foil to Blanchett's Jasmine.  One sister was part of the "one percent."  The other is a single mom, working in a little grocery store and living on the poor side of town.  Which one was better off?  Alec Baldwin is also a wise choice for the part of Hal.  I suppose one could argue that Baldwin plays the same character in every role he takes, be it on television or the silver screen.  That does not make him a bad actor, however, as one could probably make the same accusation of Cary Grant, Jimmy Stewart or John Wayne.  Hawkins, Baldwin, and of course Blanchett, are three key ingredients to Allen's masterful storytelling, making Blue Jasmine an "A" movie.  Allen has written and/or directed forty-seven movies since 1965, and I have seen twelve of them. I'm sure Mr. Allen will be excited to learn that Blue Jasmine has displaced Annie Hall as my favorite.