This is my first post on a movie that is still in theaters - and my first post on a Woody Allen movie, whose Blue Jasmine is his best movie in a long time.
The movie has been compared to A Streetcar Named Desire... I would compare the leading role to Jane in Whatever Happened To Baby Jane in terms of totally not caring about your appearance anymore, having hallucinations, drinking... What I am trying to say is that Blue Jasmine is especially worth seeing for the incredible performance of leading actress Cate Blanchett who is going to win the Oscar in february 2014... my prediction. ;-)
Woody Allen has made great movies such as Midnight In Paris, or - of course - Annie Hall (Der Stadtneurotiker), but also movies that leave you wondering what the point in seeing the movie actually was (e.g. Whatever Works). David Denby wrote in The New Yorker that Blue Jasmine is "the strongest, most resonant movie Woody Allen has made in years". This is true.
With the help of flashbacks, Jasmine Francis remembers the life she lived in New York as the wife of wealthy businessman Hal (played by Alec Baldwin) until she lost all her properties and had to move to San Francisco to live with her much poorer sister Ginger (played by Sally Hawkins). One could thus say that there are two plot lines. During the movie we see Jasmine struggle with having to find a job and being too ashamed about her situation to be honest with potential boyfriends - and we also learn how crippled the relationship between the two sisters is. The end culminates in a fight between the two sisters in which Ginger reveals her true feelings for Jasmine.
Woody Allen has made a movie that looks behind the facade of rich people and leaves us feeling sorry for them. Jasmine lives in a marriage full of lies and self-humiliation (especially on her part). She desperately tries to hold on to that life, and is unable to ask for help. In the end we can only pity her and come to the conclusion that Ginger, who works as a cashier in a small grocery store, is much happier in her life than Jasmine has ever been.
Blue Jasmine is a very exhausting movie to see - but in a positive way.
RATING: 4/5
