BLUE JASMINE

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4 stars
“There are only so many traumas you can take in life before you end up on the street screaming!” Never a truer word spoken, and for Jasmine (Cate Blanchett), deeply personal ones. She's in San Francisco hiding from a collapsing life on the pretext of visiting her sister Ginger (Sally Hawkins). Not that she'd admit it, but the once extraordinarily wealthy woman needs the support of her working class sibling – Jasmine's flat broke since her husband (Alec Baldwin) was jailed for fraud. Compounding her plunge down society's ladder is a mental disposition that, fragile at best, has been taken to breaking point by this abrupt change in circumstance.

So starts Woody Allen's poignant drama, one resting on the most brittle sense of humour: Blue Jasmine has more in common with Hannah And Her Sisters or Matchpoint than, say the family dynamics of Melinda and Melinda. This finds Allen in a strangely abrasive mood, yet it has produced one of his most honest and incisive films in years. It turns on Blachett who effortlessly captures the wretchedness of Jasmine's wild mood swings with an inevitability that is both touching and upsetting. Rather than let caricature reign as so many of Allen's leads have been willing to do (I'm thinking of you Mr Branagh), she turns Jasmine into a fully dysfunctional human being with all the curt behaviours of a woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown. It's a knock out performance ably supported by Sally Hawkins' blue collar sister who brings tremendous depth to their fractured relationship.

One audience member's 'misogyny radar' was on full alert yet it is unlikely to have picked up a bleep. Though how a 77 year old man could possibly understand much less relate the trials of sibling sisters half his age negotiating mental illness is unknown, yet that's exactly what he's achieved. As the story jumps back in forth in time, with the veracity of events changing according to Jasmine's state of mind, Allen's multi-layered approach touches on issues of truth, denial, accountability, and questions our own reaction in times of need. There are moments of great humour but suffice to say, Blue Jasmine is not an ordinary Woody Allen movie – it's an extraordinary one.

// COLIN FRASER

Previewed at Sony Theatrette, Sydney, on 8 July 2013

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STUFF

CAST
Cate Blanchette
Sally Hawkins
Alec Baldwin
Peter Sarsgaard

DIRECTOR
Woody Allen

SCREENWRITER
Woody Allen

COUNTRY
USA

CLASSIFICATION
M

RUNTIME
98 minutes

AUSTRALIAN
RELEASE DATE
September 12, 2013
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IMDB
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Stacks Image 56