Blue Jasmine
Woody Allen
The story: After her philandering husband Hal (Alec Baldwin) is arrested for his dubious business dealings, high-flying New York socialite Jasmine (Cate Blanchett) falls on hard times. She heads to San Francisco to stay with her adopted sister Ginger (Sally Hawkins) and later meets a very eligible aspiring congressman, Dwight Westlake (Peter Sarsgaard).

Although it is not billed as such, Blue Jasmine is very much Woody Allen’s take on Tennessee Williams’ Pulitzer Prize- winning play, A Streetcar Named Desire (1947).
The prolific film-maker has transplanted the story from New Orleans to San Francisco while keeping the key characters intact.
Fragile southern belle Blanche DuBois is now shaky ex-socialite Jasmine and supportive sister Stella is sympathetic sister Ginger. Stella’s brutish husband Stanley (Marlon Brando’s breakout star turn in the 1951 film adaptation) is Ginger’s boyfriend Chili (Bobby Cannavale).
The work may seem at first too dark and heavy for Allen’s sensibility. He is, after all, known for ensemble pieces which delve lightly into romance and comedy in films such as To Rome With Love (2012), Midnight In Paris (2011) and Everyone Says I Love You (1996).
But his lightness of touch in the upbeat jazzy score and the touches of humour are a nice counterpoint to Jasmine’s unravelling.
Also, Allen does not stick slavishly to Streetcar’s plot. While Jasmine clashes with Chili, their relationship does not quite collide the way it does in Streetcar.
The director also holds out the promise of a happy ending for Jasmine in the form of the perfect Dwight, though eventually that unravels as well.
Everything hinges upon Jasmine’s unhinging and Cate Blanchett (Notes On A Scandal, 2006) powers the film with her performance. An early clue that all is not quite right with her is the fact that she talks the ear off a reluctant fellow passenger.
Jasmine flits between denial and delusion and seems to have a rather tenuous grasp of the unpleasant present. The use of constant flashbacks to her moneyed tai-tai days mirrors how she easily slips into the past.
She is not the easiest person to get along with, with her posh airs and insensitive jibes about her sister’s life. Then there is also the awkward episode of a failed investment of Ginger (an engaging Sally Hawkins) and her ex-husband’s lottery winnings.
And yet, Blanchett also shows you the vulnerability of a woman buckling under pressure and anxiety.
Crucially, she does this without overacting, unlike, say Jessica Lange as Blanche in the 1995 television film adaptation of Streetcar.
Even a late twist in the tale does not diminish one’s sympathy for Jasmine and your heart goes out to her in the understatedly moving final scene.
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