Hammerman Ikon

Hammerman Ikon Film Guide

Blue Jasmine
2013
****
Director: Woody Allen
Cast: Alec Baldwin, Cate Blanchett, Louis C.K., Bobby Cannavale, Andrew Dice Clay, Sally Hawkins, Peter Sarsgaard, Michael Stuhlbarg

Jasmine falls on hard times when her millionaire husband is jailed for financial fraud. She is accustomed to high life, but without wealth or marketable professional skills she finds herself at the mercy of her sister's charity. Cate Blanchett won a deserved Oscar for her wonderfully layered performance. Jasmine is an egotistical, self-deluding and abrasive semi-alcoholic whose plight is at once thoroughly deserved and heartbreaking. In fact, the acting is excellent throughout. This is a less comedic film than Woody Allen's recent output, but alongside Midnight in Paris, it is his best work of the 21st century.