It's a shame about "Blue Jasmine." Unlike so many of Woody Allen's other films from the last 20 years, this one actually could have been great, with its ripped-from-the-headlines story line. Neurotic women have always been the key to Woody's good film. And the fish-out-of-water parts of Cate Blanchett's fallen Park Avenue socialite trying to rebuild her life while living with her blue-collar sister in San Francisco is a breeding ground for humor. Throw in a a strong supporting cast -- Sally Hawkins, Alec Baldwin, Louis CK, Bobby Cannavale, Peter Sarsgaard and Andrew Dice Clay -- and it's hard to see where you could go wrong. But it does. Jasmine is way beyond neurotic: she's suffering from acute psychosis after a serious mental breakdown. A lightweight comedy is hardly the right milieu for this topic, as there's little humor in a woman in deep need of help who is not getting it. Pity Woody didn't spend two years -- instead of keeping up his trademark one film per year regimen -- and iron out the serious flaws in the story, including some clunky dialogue, a poorly fleshed out new romance and a son whose reaction to things didn't track. Surely I am not the only one who noticed.
5 comments:
at least Sally Hawkins is in it and she's an awesome talent! love her
'Stardust Memories' is my favorite Woody Allen film. The music alone is the jazz of the old townsy Greenwich Village. The scenery of friends today is blurred by cell bater.
I think you've missed the point. It wasn't INTENDED to be a "light comedy." It was a scathing indictment of greed and an illustration of the wages of rampant materialism in a superficial society. Jasmine seems the victim for much of the movie, and then we learn she is at least complicit in her suffering as the co-architect of her downfall. How can this not resonate? Especially If we've paid even a little attention over the last five years while America's promise was subsumed by corporate greed and corruption? And let's not forget: who finds some measure of stability and contentment at the end of the film? Ginger, who ultimately chooses the honesty and simplicity of her blue collar life over the chaos of her social-climber sister. This is Allen's message, and it's a poignant one. Who says everyAllen film has to be a comedy, anyway?
"From Rome With Love" was a great example of a half-written script. I am sorry that Woody repeated the error.
@Anonymous: Whether it was INTENDED to be that way or not, it certainly played that way. The audience was giggling at her "talking to herself" and other moments like that. Either way, it didn't work for me. The son's reaction in the end didn't add up, either.
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