Ginger has a small apartment in San Francisco, she has two boys and a boyfriend, Chili. She works as a checker and stocker in a small local market and Chili is a mechanic. They were planning on Chili moving into the apartment. Ginger is divorced from Augie and he will be leaving the area soon to work on a pipeline in Alaska. Ginger's sister Jasmine lives in New York with her husband Hal and they have a son, Danny. Jasmine learns Hal has been cheating on her for a very long time. He tells her he is leaving her for one of the women he’s been seeing. Jasmine and Hal are very wealthy but they lose everything. Hal goes to jail and he commits suicide. Jasmine has a mental breakdown and she comes to San Francisco to live with her sister until she gets on her feet.
This is excellent, casting, scenery of San Francisco and New York, acting and storyline. Cate Blanchett gives a wonderful performance in the lead role of Jasmine. She’s hanging onto everything just by a thread at all times. Sally Hawkins as Ginger is exactly opposite from Cate in every way. There is every possible emotion available in this film. Also, a lot of humor even with the dark subject matter. 4 ½* (I loved this movie)
98 min, Drama directed by Woody Allen with Cate Blanchett, Alec Baldwin, Peter Sarsgaard, Sally Hawkins, Andrew Dice Clay, Bobby Cannavale, Charlie Tahan, Annie McNamara, Daniel Jenks, Max Rutherford, Tammy Blanchard, Kathy Tong, Ted Newstadt, Andrew Long.
Note: Imdb 7.3 out of 10, Rotten Tomatoes 90% with 223 critics 85% audience with 49,057 user ratings, Roger Ebert 3* Susan Wloszczyna, The Guardian 4* out of 5* Mark Kermode,
Common Sense Media S. Jhoanna Robledo, age 14+, positive messages 0, role models 1*, violence 2*, sex 2*, language 4*, consumerism,, drinking drugs & smoking 3*, Amazon 4.1* out of 5* with 1,982 reviews, Letterboxd 3.6* out of 5* with 99 fans, Metacritic 78 out of 100 with 47 critic reviews (positive 78 mixed 4, negative 1), 7.7 out of 10 with 386 user scores (positive 317, mixed 46, negative 23), The Guardian 4* out of 5*.
Special Note: Costume designer Suzy Benzinger had a budget of only $35,000. The Hermes bag that Jasmine carries was worth more than the entire budget? It was borrowed along with most of the other designer outfits. Director Woody Allen doesn’t get into motivation or background of a character when he is directing actors. Blanchett and Hawkins got together and invented the background for their relationship as sisters. In every scene when they talked about their past it is vague on the script and for the viewer. Both actresses knew before the scenes exactly what they were talking about as sisters. Blanchette studied the 60 minutes 1968 interview with Ruth Madoff, the wife of disgraced Wall Street swindler Bernie Madoff. She wanted to learn the vocal inflections and body language that Ruth used. She did this to capture the essence of a woman who had once been wealthy and living in a privileged world. How would she really act when that world comes crumbling down around her? Loosely based upon the 1947 play A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams.
Added Note: The themes of this film may be too mature for tweens and younger. Jamine is mentally unstable and is falling apart right before you eyes. Characters don’t readily empathize with one another. They seem to sabotage each other and themselves instead. Lots of drinking and pill taking by the main character Jasmine. She relies on hard liquor and prescriptions medications to get through the day. One character is very angry, bordering on abusive and there is some strong language.
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