Director: Woody Allen
Talent: Cate Blanchett, Alec Baldwin, Peter Sarsgaard, Sally Hawkins
Release Date: 27th September 2013
Let’s not even bother with the question of whether or not Woody Allen has recovered his form: it’s enough to say that this is a very good film, powered by strong performances, particularly a compelling turn by Cate Blanchett as Jasmine, a down-on-her-luck New York socialite forced to seek help from her blue-collar sister (Sally Hawkins). Having previously raided such masters as Bergman, Fellini and Chekhov for the elements of his own work, Allen here profitably turns to Tennessee Williams by updating A Streetcar Named Desire for a post-Madoff age in which the grandeur of the wealthy is revealed as pretension and fraud. There are many laughs, but often they are an amused cringe at the airs and self-deception of Jasmine or a slightly vindictive cackle at the demeaning situations in which she finds herself. A number of times, Jasmine expresses her desire for a ‘substantial’ job, or a partner of more ‘substance’ than her sister’s grease-monkey boyfriends, whose rough-and-ready appearances and volatile tempers contrast happily with the polish and poise of Jasmine’s husband (Alec Baldwin), a money manager seen in flashbacks to Jasmine’s once-perfect life. In the end, we pity her as much as we mock her. Blanchett makes us feel her character’s fragility without ever suffocating the comedy.
After a vapid flit around Europe, Allen has found something ‘substantial’ to sink his teeth into with the humiliations that have followed on from financial calamities that have befallen the cossetted metropolitan characters who once ranged so carefree in his work. The humour tastes bitter, black and beautiful.
