If you were caught up in a stressful situation how would you react? I would say that most of us would be quite upset. Well what if suddenly in less than a week or so your entire life which you had made for yourself and been happy in fell apart? Well than you might go a little insane. I always found there to be a blunt realism to Woody Allen's films. Yes I know they are kind of like dreams and Midnight in Paris has something oddly supernatural going on, but seriously in his old masterpieces as well as Blue Jasmine each character possesses a quite a bit of realism. Mainly that nobody in his films are perfect and almost always have an flaw. That's what makes all of his films interesting. This is all,but much more present in this incredible entry into Allen's filmography. Blue Jasmine is about Jasmine (played by Cate Blanchett) a woman who at one time was rich,but her husband turned out to be a crook and she lost everything. She has walked out of it all supposedly fine, but that's not true. Jasmines fatal flaw is she just wants to leave the uphill battle of a life that she has now and go back to the way it used to be. This though is not easy seeing how she has lost everything and is now working and living with her sister to keep stuff together. Blanchett is doing the best work I have ever seen from her here and deserved every single award she won from it. The character is just so interesting. She has these moments where she trances and starts talking to herself as if she is back in her old life trying to recapture the happiness that she used to have but, she can't. As far as character development goes this is the best I've seen Allen do it since Annie Hall which me only being 15 watched about about a week ago. I think that Jasmine really is one of the more interesting characters that Allen has created. I said most of the characters have flaws,but actually having somebody who's insane and getting crushed by the weight of everything is a much more interesting character that a beefed up action hero. If there is one thing that Allen does better than anybody else is he makes the best talkie movies that mean something. The dialogue in his films. That's no exception here. The film is terrifically scripted switching between Jasmine's old and new lives slowly showing us how and why everything fell apart. Oh and unlike most drama the side-plots are given a lot of attention. Most action, comedy and drama movies cop out of on the side-plots,but not Blue Jasmine. The side-plot involving Jasmine's sister actually helps characterize Jasmine as well as the sister showing a meaner side of Jasmine. Oh and the same goes for supporting characters. Here we have an abundance of important character actors including Peter Sarsgard who I have not seen to much but is probably one of the better actors working today. Alec Baldwin has a small,but vital role, and even Louie C.K. pops up as a kind of funny asshole. It's all great work, however it is wildly overshadowed by Blanchett's. Also like other more recent Woody Allen films I found that Blue Jasmine is extremely colorful and lovely, but really that's a small side note. Really I feel like I should be apologizing for the fact that I don't rate a lot of bad movies on here. Whenever I'm in the theatre I could easily find a few,but at home I kind of have to force myself to. By the way don't watch After Earth just as bad as everyone says okay. Blue Jasmine really deserves a 10 out of 10 not anywhere near my just great movies, but still deserving of that rating.
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December 2017
CategoriesAuthorHello welcome to FilmAnalyst. My name is Stephen Tronicek, and I really like movies. This is a way to get my opinions out to people. Thank you for visiting. |