Blue Jasmine (2013) [Blu-ray]
Comedy | Drama

Poignant, romantic, and mesmerizing, writer/director Woody Allen's latest masterpiece centers around Jasmine (Cate Blanchett), a former New York socialite teetering on an emotional tightrope, balancing between her troubled east coast past and a fresh start in San Francisco. Having moved into her sister's humble apartment, Jasmine ricochets between the tumultuous acceptance of her new limitations, and the dreams of reclaiming her past life's glamour. Join a powerful cast for an intimate portrayal of the battle between fantasy and reality which rages within us all.

Storyline: Jasmine French used to be on the top of the heap as a New York socialite, but now is returning to her estranged sister in San Francisco utterly ruined. As Jasmine struggles with her haunting memories of a privileged past bearing dark realities she ignored, she tries to recover in her present. Unfortunately, it all proves a losing battle as Jasmine's narcissistic hangups and their consequences begin to overwhelm her. In doing so, her old pretensions and new deceits begin to foul up everyone's lives, especially her own. Written by Kenneth Chisholm (kchishol@rogers.com)

Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Martin Liebman on January 21, 2014 -- There's no stopping Woody Allen. And for cinephiles, that's quite all right. The legendary filmmaker may be the busiest man in show business, writing and directing about a movie per year over the past several decades and showing no signs of not merely stopping, but of failing to make something that's not, in some form or fashion, human, magical, whimsical, and unforgettable. He's been on a major winning streak of late, his last handful of pictures earning well-deserved critical acclaim, including the Oscar-winning Midnight in Paris, the multi-character piece To Rome with Love, and the classic Allen-esque You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger. With Blue Jasmine, Allen has done it again, creating an intimately structured portrait of a frazzled life that requires healing but seemingly cannot mend. Allen has again collected an electric cast, penned a witty and sharp script, and directed his actors to the sort of natural nuance of the everyday that makes his films so good. It's typical Allen in many ways, yet at the same time a fresh approach to a classic tale of recovery and the people who don't always let that happen, including the very person struggling to make it through the hard times.

Jasmine (Cate Blanchett), broke and broken from her failed marriage to New York businessman Hal (Alec Baldwin), has flown cross-country to San Francisco where she's to stay with her adopted sister Ginger (Sally Hawkins) and her two pre-pubescent boys. It's a culture shock to Jasmine, leaving the highlife of wealth and privilege for a mundane existence in a relatively small apartment, forced to seek menial employment and fend off mostly undesirable men. The film frequently switches between Jasmine's present life in San Francisco and her previous life in New York, studying her progression across both phases and leading her towards whatever destiny her life may have in store.

Blue Jasmine works as a rather sobering character portrait, the inside track on a woman's life that's uprooted from the glamour of high society and forced into a lower class of people who see her more as an object and less an expensive work of art. And that's not at all unlike her old life in New York. Jasmine, who changed her name to suit her husband's taste, has never really been accepted for who she is, certainly not by New York husband Hal and definitely not by those who seek to take advantage of her perceived vulnerability in San Francisco. The film follows her crumbling relationships and struggling slog through the world as it's lived near the bottom, a world where money can't solve everything, where living proves harder than simply putting it on the credit card and rubbing elbows with a who's who of big city socialites. As she maneuvers through demeaning jobs and a lower class of suitors, she struggles to find herself because the true person inside is someone she's never known, or at least not known for many years.

Indeed, the film's triumph lies in Jasmine's inner reflections and the battle she fights with herself. While it doesn't quite explore that inner struggle to complete satisfaction, Allen has crafted a character portrait that's interesting at its worst and absorbing and emotional at its best. Cate Blanchett thoroughly builds the character not simply through dialogue and interactions with the world around her, but through the nuance of a glance or movement that tells a much larger story than the script alone. She's surrounded by an excellent supporting cast, including Alec Baldwin as her charming but controlling and conniving New York husband, Sally Hawkins as her adopted sister who is herself pushing through a myriad of personal and relationship problems, and Andrew Dice Clay as Augie, Ginger's wounded ex-husband whose life Hal ostensibly ruined.

Blue Jasmine represents the quintessential Woody Allen. The film excels with its visual simplicity and character complexities. The script is smart and witty but powerfully emotional in a rather subtle, everyday way. It's much more an inward-focused film than it is a picture that concerns itself with the exterior, using the latter to better define and support the former. It's beautifully performed and nicely photographed, effortlessly combining charm, humor, heart, hurt, doubt, and detailed character study into a complete, must-see picture. Sony's Blu-ray release of Blue Jasmine features excellent video and a Woody Allen-typical soundtrack, meaning "reserved" and "front-heavy." A few brief extras are included. Recommended.

[CSW] -3.1- I really couldn't have said it better than this reviewer:

A tour de force performance by Kate Blanchette is the main reason to see this movie, which starts out like a sort of semi-comic pastiche of some usual Woody Allen themes (a neurotic but funny main character, some almost stereotypical support characters, some eye-catching backdrop scenery, etc.), but quickly devolves into what looks like an attempt to re-write "A Streetcar Named Desire" as a sort of comedy. Many of the plot devices don't ring true and wind up as just excuses to push the main character further towards her inevitable downward spiral, and as in many of Allen's films, style inevitably trumps over substance. Alec Baldwin gets to play what he plays best, a handsome sleazebag, and Andrew Dice Clay is very good in a role reminiscent of Mitch, who "unmasks" Blanche in Streetcar and helps to push her over the edge. The sister's boyfriend is an unabashed re-working of Stanley Kowalski. This movie is a marvelous showcase for Kate Blanchette, but Tennessee Williams must be revolving furiously in his grave. .

Worth a watch if only to see why Kate Blanchette won an Academy Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role with her outstanding performance as Jasmine.
[V4.5-A3.5] MPEG-4 AVC - No D-Box.

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