The initial situation will prove irresistible for those who like a good culture clash between the classes. Fortified by fists full of Xanax, guzzles of vodka and an impressive set of Louis Vuitton luggage, a now-penniless Jasmine (formerly known as Janette) relies on the kindness not of strangers but of relatives: primarily, her forgiving and upbeat sister Ginger (Sally Hawkins). Ginger is a grocery store clerk with two young sons who gladly allows her snobbish sibling to swan around her cramped quarters as if she were visiting royalty. A lesser actress might be crushed by Blanchett, but the bouncy Brit also scores some triumphs as Ginger begins to question her own choices after Jasmine's arrival.
Meanwhile, mentally unstable Jasmine is haunted by the past and so is the film. As her muddled mind flashes back to her luxurious East Coast existence, she realizes that she regularly turned a blind eye to her husband's flaws as a relentless skirt-chaser as well as a heartless crook.
Eventually, Jasmine must lower her standards—she thinks she has the right stuff to be an interior designer, but can barely make it through a computer class so she can sign up for online courses—and takes a job as a dental receptionist, tacky posy-splattered smock included. That setup allows the director to provide the film's most horrifyingly amusing Allen-esque sequence: A repelled Blanchett squirming out of the sweaty embrace of her employer, a creep played to the hilt by Michael Stuhlbarg, who tries to romance Jasmine with an offer of nitrous oxide.
Allen sometimes fills in too many of the blanks. We are reminded again and again that Ginger and Jasmine are adopted children from different birth parents because they look nothing alike.
And sometimes not enough. Wouldn't a smooth operator like Peter Sarsgaard's dashing diplomat with political ambitions who falls for Jasmine's fabricated stories of her upscale lifestyle better investigate the woman he is dating?
No matter. A good Woody Allen flick is a thing of joy these days and, at times, "Blue Jasmine" is even a great one, close to being an equal to 2005's "Match Point." Let us hope he never stops trying.
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