Who Do I Have to Sleep With to Get a Stoli Martini:
BLUE JASMINE

by Le Anne Lindsay, Editor

So everyone wants to describe Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine as Ruth Madoff meets Blanche DuBoise;  inspiration wise, that’s apt, but Jasmine (Cate Blanchett) is an incredibly believable character which needs no comparison.

I found so much favor in this movie, I’ve already seen it twice! With so many films/movies to see in theaters, at film festivals and on Netflix, I don’t normally take the time to see a lot a second time; and I’m happy to report it more than holds up on another viewing. In fact, it’s going on my “buy for my library list”, and very few movies make that list. The last one was An Education, which coincidentally, Peter Sarsgaard is also in, but in Blue Jasmine he is duped, rather than duping for a change.

Jasmine has the life I was always meant to lead. She’s part of the wealthy social set that gets to sail the French Mediterranean coast on holiday, throw lavish dinner parties, in homes with high ceilings and great views. Only wears perfectly tailored designer apparel, and accessories, which include expensive jewels given as birthday presents by an adoring husband, who possesses ultimate confidence, a guy who can make 10 Mil with a phone call or two, played so appropriately by Alec Baldwin. 

So when her husband is arrested on the street by the Feds, and hangs himself in prison, Jasmine’s

perfectly manicured life falls out from under her – it’s understandable why she beleaguers that poor woman seated next to her on the flight to San Francisco with the story of her life. Why the only thing holding her together is a constant rotation of Xanax and Stoli Martini’s with a twist of lemon. I feel for Jasmine when she looks aghast upon entering her adopted (inferior genes) sister Ginger’s (Sally Hawkins – also perfectly cast) modest apartment, and knows it’s this or the streets.  I ache for her having to wear again and again the same 5 or 6 good pieces left from her posh wardrobe and her one remaining Birken bag. I’m not being facetious, I mean it. I hate to see people living this lifestyle fall from grace. Because I know if it was me, I’d never want the party to end. So I don’t come away from this movie saying – well she shouldn’t have been so trusting. She shouldn’t have looked the other way. She should have had a back up plan. She’s a snob and needed a dose of reality.  No, I say, why can’t life be and stay that good?!! 

 Regardless of the fact that most people won’t see it the way I do. They will see that this is a Tour de force for Cate Blanchett and an amazingly seamless, and authentically funny movie that will stand out among Wood Allen’s prolific legacy.