It took a while before Woody Allen's European idyllic adventures of neurotic whimsy, captured in good spirit with "To Rome with Love" and "Midnight In Paris," eventually landed him back in the U.S.
In "Blue Jasmine," Allen arrives on the west coast in San Francisco. This rags to riches then back to rags, morality play is a character study of one woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown.
The obvious influence postured in Allen's "Blue Jasmine" is "A Streetcar Named Desire;" with his heroine recalling the cypher of Blanche Dubois.
But Allen's "Blue Jasmine" does have much in common also with Pedro Almodovar's work, whose female centered films envelope themselves in the conflations of soap opera tendencies. "Blue Jasmine" does do this too, but it's rare to see Allen in such cynical form; balancing tones from his comic work with the drama of "Cassandra's Dream" so well. Even so, "Blue Jasmine" is blessed and buttressed by an impressive central performance.
Cate Blanchett ("Hanna") plays Jasmine (n
