Blue Jasmine

Blue Jasmine is wonderful. Woody Allen's most recent movie is his darkest and most focused. This tight character study stars Kate Blanchett as Jasmine, an excessively wealthy woman whose crooked Madoff-esque husband loses all their money and is imprisoned. She moves to stay with her sister in San Francisco while she tries to get her life in order.

She is emotionally disturbed (talks to herself, pops pills and swigs booze constantly), and there is a long history of animosity between her and her sister, Ginger. The conflict between them as well as between tertiary characters is less superficial than conflict in other Allen movies. It is gripping and tangled conflict that can't be easily resolved. Or easily laughed at.

There were definitely laugh out loud moments in Blue Jasmine, but for the most part this is a serious and sad drama about an isolated, self-deceived woman. Her neurosis and narcissism are less charming than the qualities are in other Woody Allen heroines, and are instead disturbing and sad. This is a haunting movie that I've been thinking about and will continue to think about for quite some time.