Cate Blanchett and Alec Baldwin play Jasmine and Hal a married couple that are living the high life due to Hal's highly successful financial work. They live in New York City with Jasmine playing the trophy wife and enjoying all the frills and benefits that go along with it. She either is delusional or ignores what is going on with her and Hal. She senses things are not right at times and confronts him on it but they end up burying it and they go about their business.
As that story unfolds we also she the repercussions of what happens between them it in another setting in the not so distant future with Jasmine moving to San Francisco and moving in with her sister Ginger to get back on her feet after what happened between her and Hal. We find out that Hal took Ginger's and her now ex-husband, Auggie ( Andrew Dice Clay ) lottery winnings awhile back to invest for them but ends up losing it all. Auggie has physically moved on but not emotionally. Ginger has moved on as she is now engaged to a man named Chili who Jasmine constantly puts down and states that she is just settling. Jasmine continues to try to live the high life she is accustomed to as she attempts to date high up the food chain while working at a dentist office doing filing work.
Jasmine's decisions in the past and present constantly effect everyone around her and its usually in a negative way at that. She has a son that left home once the situation between her and Hal boiled over. Her sister while trying to be supportive ends up causing problems between her and Chili to the point that he is crying his eyes out to her. While her fault or not Jasmine seems to have the reverse of a Midas touch with people.
She is like a storm as she comes into your life and after she is gone you must regroup and move on and with that movie ends in typical Woody Allen fashion as you must make your own conclusions on what happens to her physically and mentally
Verdict : Low expectations for me going into this film as I am not the biggest Woody fan and came out thinking that it was a decent if not great movie. Cate and Alex play their parts perfectly and are the stars of the film. The supporting cast does well with the material they had with Ginger being the one stand out of the bunch. With the Madoff and financial controversy still fresh in our minds I can see how someone like Jasmine would live in this world. So involved in it but so far detached as well. Whether she knew what she was or was not doing to people is debatable but I know people like this myself and I am not on Wall Street where the bigger money makers are. The film is like slow water torture for Jasmine as though she is not knocked out with one swift blow its just a poke here and poke there while she slowly starts to unravel and Cate expresses all the emotions perfectly. In the end, you can probably pass on watching this on the big screen but a viewing at home is recommended. A slight THUMBS UP for me this latest Woody flick.
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