Blue Jasmine

An uneven yet engaging effort from Woody Allen, Blue Jasmine follows Cate Blanchett’s Jasmine as she attempts to start her life over after the sudden dissolution of her marriage to Alec Baldwin’s wealthy financier. Writer/director Allen has infused Blue Jasmine with a typically low-key feel that does, at the outset, prevent the viewer from wholeheartedly embracing the narrative, with the subdued atmosphere compounded by a narrative that almost seems too simple and underdeveloped. It eventually does become clear, however, that Allen has more in mind than just a typical fall-from-grace story, with the impressively unpredictable arc of Blanchett’s layered character lifting the film out of its doldrums on a continuous basis – as the character, anchored by Blanchett’s frequently stunning performance, becomes a far more engrossing and complex figure than one might’ve initially suspected. It’s just a shame, then, that the narrative is, for the most part, unable to lift itself up to Blanchett’s level, although Allen admittedly does a nice job of offering up a few compelling stretches within the lackadaisical midsection (eg Jasmine meets Peter Sarsgaard’s charming, affluent Dwight). The end result is a better-than-average contemporary Allen effort that benefits substantially from Blanchett’s tour-de-force turn as the title character, as the movie is otherwise exactly the sort of aimless and underwhelming endeavor that one has come to expect from the aging filmmaker.

*** out of ****