- A New York socialite, deeply troubled and in denial, arrives in San Francisco to impose upon her sister. She looks like a million dollars but isn't bringing money, peace or love.
- Jasmine French used to be on the top of the heap as a New York socialite, but now is returning to her estranged sister in San Francisco utterly ruined. As Jasmine struggles with her haunting memories of a privileged past bearing dark realities she ignored, she tries to recover in her present. Unfortunately, it all proves a losing battle as Jasmine's narcissistic hangups and their consequences begin to overwhelm her. In doing so, her old pretensions and new deceits begin to foul up everyone's lives, especially her own.—Kenneth Chisholm (kchishol@rogers.com)
- Jasmine from New York who lives in a fashionable society, moves to San Francisco to live with her sister after she goes completely broke and hovers near a nervous breakdown. Jasmine is struggling with her past memories but she wants to put aside all those haunted memories and wants to start a new life just from the scratch, but in doing so she chooses the path of deceit and fouls up everyone's lives.—someonesmart21
- After her marriage to a wealthy businessman collapses, New York socialite Jasmine flees to San Francisco and the modest apartment of her sister Ginger. Although she's in a fragile emotional state and lacks job skills, Jasmine still manages to voice her disapproval of Ginger's boyfriend, Chili. Jasmine begrudgingly takes a job in a dentist's office, while Ginger begins dating a man who's a step up from Chili.—Jwelch5742
- After years of blasé estrangement and absolute self-indulgence in life's inexhaustible pleasures, elegant Manhattan socialite Jeanette Francis swallows her pride to reunite with Ginger, her working-class sister. But now, the money's gone, and the drugs don't work. After all, it seems like only yesterday that Jeanette was the untouchable queen of the castle. Now, defeated and broken, the fallen epitome of effortless American glamour is lucky to have a roof over her head and someone who, God knows why, genuinely loves her. And then, as Jeanette struggles to find her feet and cope with the unbearable certainty of an achingly humble forced reality, fortune smiles upon her again. Will the godsent gift mark a longed-for fresh start? Is the perpetually aloof Blue Jasmine spared from the daily ordeal of a mundane, dangerously familiar existence?—Nick Riganas
- As the film opens we are in an airplane watching a woman named Jasmine (Cate Blanchett), dressed in a white Chanel suit, jewelry and personality all screaming wealth, as she talks nonstop to people that do not know her, nor appear interested in her story. After all, she is not engaging them in an actual conversation, just expects them to pay rapt attention as she complains. We follow Jasmine from the plane to baggage-claim, then to a cab, which lets her off in front of a rather seedy apartment in San Francisco overhead a store. By the time Jasmine exits the taxi, wheeling $10,000 worth of Louis Vuitton luggage, Woody Allen has already provided us with a basic understanding of the backstory for Jasmine French as a former New York socialite, whose fall from that world was so complete that she sees no option but to move in with her blue-collar sister, Ginger (Sally Hawkins).
It is soon made clear to the viewers that Jasmine not only feels the apartment is not remotely up to her standards, but has no more fondness for her sister than for her residence. We see that Ginger has always felt envious of her sister, she was the pretty one, the golden-girl, one with a sense of style that helped her land a millionaire husband and the accompanying lifestyle. The story is told in part through flashbacks that reveal her former life and the secrets behind its rise and fall. When you are on top of the world, clearly it's a long way down.
In one of the flashbacks, we are shown a time when Ginger and her former husband, Augie, (Andrew Dice Clay), had made a rare visit to New York to see her sister. Jasmine made little secret of her lack of interest in spending time with them; her rich husband Hal (Alec Baldwin) sent them off in a limousine to tour the city, then paid for a hotel rather than having the guests stay in their home. The following day at Hal's country estate in the Hamptons, Augie proudly tells how he has won $200,000 in the lottery and plans to use that money to start his own construction company. Jasmine suggests that Augie invest the total amount in a new... and obviously to the audience, shady... business venture of Hal's. Riding back in the chauffeured limo, Ginger chances to see Hal leave a restaurant with another woman and kiss her, confirming that he's cheating on Jasmine.
We gradually see how Jasmine's life of privilege and wealth unraveled. Her husband's thefts, financial maneuvering and schemes grew more and more dangerous, business partners removed themselves from his projects stating they feared prison, but Jasmine maintained her willful ignorance and denial to what was happening. Hal's infidelities, however, proved too much for her, and in revenge she reported his corporate fraud to the law. He was arrested, and his racket was publicly exposed causing scandal and outrage. Jasmine's property, homes, and lavish belongings were seized. Jasmine and Hal's son, feeling shamed and disgraced by his father's crimes, quit Harvard and disappeared without a trace. Augie's $200K was lost and with it all hopes of owning his own business; he and Ginger parted ways.
In present day San Francisco, Jasmine begins a relationship with Dwight (Peter Saarsgard) - successful, wealthy and with political ambitions - whom she sees as a chance of regaining her former glory. She invents a back history involving her husband's career as a surgeon, his death from a heart attack (in reality, he committed suicide in jail) and her career as an interior decorator. Soon, Dwight recommends they get married, which thrills Jasmine. Meanwhile, Ginger dumps her likable blue-collared boyfriend, Chili (Bobby Canavale), due largely to Jasmine's criticisms, and begins dating the equally likable Al (Louis C.K.), who turns out to be married, which destroys their relationship. In the end, she returns to Chili.
Jasmine's chance of marriage is destroyed when the vindictive Augie reveals her lies to Dwight. At this point, it is evident that all paths of redemption for Jasmine are gone. Dwight takes the truth very badly and ends his engagement to Jasmine, who yet again has an emotional meltdown. In the final scene, we watch as Jasmine walks out of Ginger's apartment, her Channel suit disheveled, and sits alone on a park bench, talking to herself again... lost in her own neurotic world without hope.
--Lane J. Lubell of Cinemashadow.com
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