You guessed it, we went to San Diego and saw movies. Here are three reviews of must-see films. I’m always interested in your thoughts about film.
Blue Jasmine (Cate Blanchett, Alec Baldwin, Sally Hawkins, Andrew Dice Clay, Bobby Cannavale, Louis C.K., Peter Sarsgaard) – Cate Blanchett gives an Oscar-worthy performance in Woody Allen’s tale of a disgraced socialite who is forced to move in with her working-class sister. Featuring typical shotgun, stream-of-consciousness Woody dialogue, the movie is one of Allen’s great character studies, punctuated by irony and humor while keeping emotions right on the surface. Most of his films feature what I call the “Woody character.” Sometimes, it’s him but, more recently, he chooses an interesting character to serve as the neurotic. Here, that character is Jasmine (Blanchett), the wife of a Bernie Madoff-type con artist who bilked people out of money while living the highest of high lives. Jasmine, whose real first name is Jeanette, bagged Hal (Alec Baldwin) with her good looks, excellent taste, and social grace. She never had to do anything else. She dropped out of college and played the part, keeping herself ignorant of her husband’s shenanigans.
Hal is exposed, goes to jail, and hangs himself. Jasmine loses everything, too, and is lucky she isn’t incarcerated since Hal put her name on lots of his phony deals. So she heads from New York to California to move in with her sister, Ginger (Sally Hawkins), and start a new life. But she has no skills, little motivation, and a lifestyle honed through years as a dilettante.
Throughout the film, we meet a host of wonderful Woody-defined characters. First, there is Ginger’s ex-husband, Augie (Andrew Dice Clay), who resents the fact that Hal invested his $200,000 in lottery winnings in one of those scam ventures. There is Ginger’s current boyfriend, Chili, played wonderfully (as always) by Bobby Cannavale. He loves her, doesn’t connect with Jasmine at all, and fights to win Ginger back after she has a fling with Al (Louis C.K. in a surprising acting turn). None of the characters feels true to life, but that is typical of Allen. These people seem unreal but terribly interesting.
As Jasmine decides to turn her life around by enrolling in a computer class in the hopes of eventually becoming an interior designer, she finds she has no aptitude and little motivation. She goes to work for a lecherous dentist (Michael Stuhlbarg) to make ends meet but that doesn’t end well. By chance, a classmate invites her to a garden party where she meets Dwight (Peter Sarsgaard), a diplomat who has just purchased a fantastic home right on the bay. Suddenly, she is right at home. He needs a decorator; she needs a husband with money. It is match made in heaven. Well, not so fast; this is a Woody movie. I will leave the rest of the story to your viewing pleasure.
As famous and heralded as Woody Allen is, he is best known for creating characters and coaxing performances that warrant Oscar nominations. Fifteen actors have been nominated in Allen’s movies: Diane Keaton, Geraldine Page, Maureen Stapleton, Mariel Hemingway, Michael Caine, Dianne Wiest, Martin Landau, Judy Davis, Chazz Palminteri, Jennifer Tilly, Mira Sorvino, Sean Penn, Samantha Morton, Penelope Cruz and himself (five won Oscars). Blanchett is bound to be the next.
Actors want to work for Woody regardless of his checkered personal history and they do so cheap. Every Allen movie is an occasion even if they rarely achieve great box office success. At 77 years old, Woody shows little desire to slow down. I, for one, am glad about that. I don’t love every Woody Allen movie but I like all of them, including Blue Jasmine.