Blue Jasmine

Though seemingly fixated with Europe for the past number of years, Woody Allen occasionally dips his feet back into the US, though this new production comes from the west coast as opposed to his beloved east coast. It stars Cate Blanchett as Jasmine Francis, previously a loaded New York socialite, who has fallen upon hard times and so arrives in San Francisco to live with her sister Ginger (Sally Hawkins) while she attempts to piece her life back together. Hello, A Streetcar Named Desire I hear you shout! Comparisons to that material are fair enough, but it's safe to say this won't become a long term classic. There's actually nothing that wrong with the film per se, the acting is great and the use of a flashback structure to explain Jasmine's circumstances works well. It's more a case of why would you want to watch this? Blanchett herself has described Jasmine as an "anti-heroine", but that's far off the mark. Her character is basically horrible and garners little sympathy from the audience, especially as her downfall is due to dodgy financial dealings (hardly the best way to elicit audience concern in this current climate). Much praise has been given to Blanchett, but to me her performance is a case of "I can see you acting", whereas the rest of the cast give a perfect example of playing it as natural as possible. Hawkins gives her usual solid performance, there's additional able support from Peter Sarsgaard (as a potential lover for Jasmine), Louis C K and Andrew Dice Clay, though it's Bobby Cannavale who steals the film giving a storming performance as Ginger's lovable lug fiance Chili. Overall, Allen's comments on social class are as subtle as a sledgehammer and there really isn't much point in seeing this unless you really are an Allen completest. Though having said that, it might be worth a watch just so you can see Sarsgaard looking like an early seasons Frasier Crane. Bizarre. Rating: 6/10.