The Wandering Review: ‘Blue Jasmine’

By Laurie Baron

SAN DIEGO — If you expect the new Woody Allen film to have some Jewish content, you’ll be disappointed, but if you want to see one of his finest dramatic movies, then you’ll be impressed.  Jasmine, played with astonishing range by Cate Blanchett, is a contemporary reincarnation of Blanche DuBois.  Her grip on sanity incrementally loosens as she tries to start anew in San Francisco after her husband Hal, a New York stock broker modeled after Bernie Madoff and endowed with remorseless charm by Alec Baldwin, gets arrested for his fraudulent financial dealings and hangs himself in prison.

Following the disintegration of her marriage and dissipation of her wealth, Jasmine moves in with her lower-class sister Ginger guilelessly acted by Sally Hawkins.  Jasmine cannot contain her condescension for her decidedly lower-class sibling and her Stanley Kowalski-like former husband Augie (Andrew Dice Clay) and current boyfriend Chili (Bobby Cannavale).  She drowns her sorrows in vodka, pops Xanax like it was candy, and flashbacks to her ostensibly happy marriage and affluent lifestyle.  Her memories disclose clues to Hal’s deceptions and infidelities which she conveniently ignored as long as he prospered and pretended he was faithful to her.

Jasmine plans to become an interior decorator, but takes a job as a receptionist for a dentist.  Dr. Flicker played by Michael Stuhlbarg is the only character who can be construed as Jewish because of his surname, profession, and association with role of the hapless Larry Gopnik in the Coen brothers’ A Serious Man.  When he proves to be a Filneresque creep, she reverts to her old pattern of finding a husband who possesses the social status she feels she deserves.  To do so, she must conceal the skeletons in her past, a strategy that ultimately destroys her credibility with a prospective spouse.

Besides Flicker, Allen has divested the movie of the Jewishness which once defined many of his characters.  Blanchett exudes emotion, but no identifiable ethnicity.  The same is true of Baldwin which is notable considering Madoff’s Jewish origins and that of many his those involved in the financial meltdown of 2008.  One of my colleagues Vincent Brook believes this might be Allen’s attempt to avoid any Semitic implications, but that never prevented Allen from portraying immoral Jewish characters.  One need only recall Crimes and Misdemeanors in which similar themes are situated in a predominantly Jewish subculture, but one in which there are still people like Ben (Sam Waterston) and Cliff (Woody Allen) who adhere to some ethical code.  I think ethnicity has receded in Allen’s films as he has shifted their locales away from New York to Barcelona, London, Paris, and Rome.

Indeed, Allen’s luminescent cinematography of those cities is absent from the bleached exterior shots of New York and San Francisco that appear in Blue Jasmine.  This could be his way of visualizing the tarnished patina of American materialism that provided the fertile soil for Madoff and his Wall Street cronies to bilk billions from their investors.

Despite its exploration of the toll taken by economic inequality and human corruption, Blue Jasmine is not a depressing film.  The picture is peppered with humor, much of which stems from Blanchett’s blasé delivery and dialogue that parody her character’s self-pity and from sarcastic contempt for Ginger, Augie, and Chili.  The latter’s unassuming responses to Jasmine’s pretentious comments also generate laughs by juxtaposing polar outlooks on life.  In the end, they emerge as the more genuine characters while Jasmine sinks deeper into the delusions of the American dream turned nightmare.

*
Baron is professor emeritus of history at San Diego State University.  His specialty is Jewish cinema.  He may be contacted at lawrence.baron@sdjewishworld.com