Blue Jasmine
Jasmine (Cate Blanchett), a wealthy New York socialite, has fallen on hard times following the arrest and subsequent suicide of her financial scam con artist husband (Alec Baldwin) so she is reduced to staying with her divorced sister Ginger (Sally Hawkins) in her modest San Francisco apartment. We find out much of what happened in flashback, as well as discovering how both women, but especially Jasmine, cope with their changed circumstances.
I am told that this (written and directed by) Woody Allen film is promoted as a comedy, which it certainly isn't: there is very little humour in it. What there is, however, is a towering performance by Cate Blanchett. Never, for an instant, do you think that you are watching Cate Blanchett acting: what you are watching is Jasmine.
Unfortunately, Jasmine is a horribly unsympathetic character. When things are going well for her, she is a shallow snob and, now that she is destitute, she is a self-pitying snob who continues to look down on the sister on whom she has no choice but to depend (the two sisters are adopted, although this appears to have no significance whatsoever other than, perhaps, reflecting the unusual family structure enjoyed by the writer). Even Jasmine's nervous breakdown attracts no sympathy: you feel that she deserves it.
I'm not a great fan of Woody Allen: I find his films variable. Thankfully, this one doesn't feature a "Woody Allen substitute" character, but it does feature another trait which has surfaced in his recent films: it just stops. There is no resolution to Jasmine's story, or how it impacts on Ginger's. Any investment one has made in these characters - and I admit that all the cast members are excellent, not just Blanchett - is wasted.
For all the quality of the acting, what really matters is your reaction on leaving the cinema, and I left thinking, "Oh. So what?" What could have been a very good film remains simply annoying.