Lucas
Versantvoort / 7 September 2014
If I could
have given this film a 1 out of 10, I would have, but that would imply that I
have some personal complaints against it. The fact is, nothing at all happened
to me on a personal level…and that is precisely the problem. This film
meanders along with minimal character development and features Cate Blanchett
who plays quite well, but not extraordinarily so in my opinion. There were
scenes where I feel she did a great job, but overall I couldn’t shake the
feeling I was watching Cate Blanchett acting. The film also ends without much
being accomplished or changed and sometimes that can be the point, to show
characters stuck in old, destructive behavior (like, for instance, The Sopranos), and that seems to also be
the point of Blue Jasmine, to show a
few days in the life of these characters, how the past influences the present,
how one can easily get stuck in old behavior, etc. The first scene and last
scene parallel each other in that both feature Jasmine talking to herself more
or less; in the first scene she talks to a woman on the plane who eventually
tells her husband it was like Jasmine was talking to herself the entire time.
In the end, Jasmine is literally just talking to herself. However, Blue Jasmine is unable to make you care
for any of these characters. In the end, you’re just glad it’s over and you’re stuck
with the feeling no audience wants to experience: “What was the point of
watching this?”
To provide a synopsis, hyper neurotic
Jasmine is broke (more or less) and goes to live with her sister, Ginger, who
is part of the working class. The film flashbacks to when Jasmine was married
with Hal, a successful businessman who as it turns out, was a fraudster and
also cheated on Jasmine. She advised Ginger and her then working-class husband,
Augie, to let Hal handle the money they won in the lottery back then. Surprisingly
(not really…), this backfires on them in ways I’ll not get into here. For the
most part, we see Jasmine and Ginger in the present, trying to deal with
various new relationships and basically trying to get their lives in order.
The film also features a
time-shifting device where we’re constantly shifting between past and present. Though
it adds some suspense, I can’t help but feel that it’s only function is to
technically disguise the narrative’s shortcomings.
The film also features some plot
twists I didn’t really care about (spoilers). At one point, Ginger has troubles
with Chili, meets mister nice guy (played by famous comedian Louis C.K.) and
starts a new relationship with him, breaking up with tearful Chili. All seems
well until (shocker), mister nice guy turns out to be married, after which
Ginger reunites with Chili. What really bugged is me that this plot twist seems
to only exist because of Louis C.K.’s real life every day guy nature. When you
see him hooking up with Ginger, you immediately like this prospect because
you’re used to Louis C.K.’s on-stage nature. However, when it is revealed that
his character is actually married, that he is just a skirt chaser after which you
never see him again, it just feels wrong, like Woody Allen’s laughing in your
face that you thought Louis’ character was similar to how you see him on-stage.
Brace yourselves, but apparently, this
film has been compared to A Streetcar
Named Desire. Now…I can only assume tha- hey, what’s wrong!? Whoa, you
passed out there for a second! It’s okay, that usually happens whenever someone
reads this. Anyway, I can assume that’s only because of certain similarities in
style and narrative (its focus on sexuality and relationships), because in
terms of historical importance, Blue
Jasmine doesn’t even come close to Streetcar’s
place in film history. I think Blue
Jasmine is one film we’ll have to chalk up to Woody Allen running out of
his creative juices.
No comments:
Post a Comment