Today's Mini-Review: Blue Jasmine

Blue Jasmine: ****/*****, or 8/10

Woody Allen returns to directing with a vengeance after a disappointing interlude of lesser, though still decent, films. Allen's greatest gambit in Blue Jasmine is the formidable talent provided by the divine Cate Blanchett. Her portrayal of a down-on-her-luck big city socialite who must leave her comfort zone of excessive luxury in exchange for crashing on her blue-collar sister's couch (sort of, since both women were adopted as children) and getting an ordinary job both causes you to hate this woman and feel for her (at first!) in her misery and increasingly deteriorating mental state. Thanks to her former husband (impeccably nefarious Alec Baldwin), a wealthy entrepreneur whose entire fortune was built on the ruthless conning of decent folk – including her own sister and her former fiancé – Jasmine was living the good life until she herself brought down her own house in a petty move that showed she was at least as vicious and self-absorbed as her spouse. Allen doesn't just give the reasons for her sad emotional state away; instead he utilizes a distinctly fragmented narrative that gives you one bit of information at a time until the full picture is revealed at the close of the film. But all the while, he paints a distressing portrait of an utterly narcissistic character who is living in extreme denial of her sorry social situation brought about by turning a blind eye to the obvious shenanigans of her husband for her own financial security's sake.

Nevertheless, a depressing drama Blue Jasmine is not. Rather, it is a tragicomedy in the truest sense of the word, which is swiftly indicated by the delightful opening that features Jasmine's non-stop rambling about her life to a complete stranger on a plane flight. Other hilarious moments include Jasmine's illogical reasoning as she decides what sort of job she thinks she deserves, as well as her wonderfully funny portrayal of a lousy dentist assistant, who can do nothing right but is so good looking her boss (a rather atypical performance by Michael Stuhlbarg) can't keep his hands off her, which illuminates the fact Jasmine is all style over substance: something that most certainly cannot be said for the film itself, unlike some of Allen's other recent work. Allen's message is clear: the rich and wealthy of this world, whose life is built on their own house of cards, are playing with fire at the ruin of others, but mostly themselves, as the hardworking everyday folk have much less to lose and can regain their happiness and lust for life far easier. You might consider this a form of social commentary on the current economic crisis that tells the audience it's really not all that bad unless you can't cope with living a simpler life, but Allen doesn't claim to have pretensions towards such lecturing on world affairs in Blue Jasmine. However, he clearly illustrates the life of high society is not a state of being to be envied with its incessant petty bickering and rampant relational double-crossing, especially compared to us normal people who fortunately don't have to deal with such scandalous affairs. Case in point, Jasmine's sister Ginger (a charming Sally Hawkins), who soon must deal with the rifts in her own circle caused by Jasmine's disturbing presence in her home. Ginger blames the bad history between her and her sister on her ex-husband, but over the course of the film must come to terms with Jasmine's apparent self-destructive nature, which threatens to drag her down with her, except she won't let it, after which she gets back on her feet much quicker because of her flexible stance towards life. Meanwhile, poor Jasmine sinks deeper and deeper, to our delight and sense of moral justice, as pity ever more tucks its tail between its legs when we come to know what she hath wrought and how much she deserves her fate, which is all the while coupled with nothing but the sincerest admiration for Blanchett's displayed skills at her craft in making this downward spiral feel totally compelling throughout.