Les acteurs sont excellents,la réalisation : rien à dire...Mais  pas une miette d'espoir. Je me suis senti extrêment déprimé à la fin de l'histoire. Dans ses films "d'avant" il y avait  une vague bienveillance quand même dans son humour (bien que toujours grinçant il faut bien le dire...)ça fait longtemps -10 ans sinon plus- que Woody Allen ne me fait plus rire !

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no there there

Author: zken-1 from United States
16 August 2013
 

Woody may have once been a comedian, but he now has produced one of the most depressing movies in years. Even Cate Blanchett cannot save this derivative, dark and pointless study in modern melt downs a la Bernie Madoff. He also makes the ultimate cardinal sin of modern film making; letting the geography completely contradict the action and tone of the film. What is left is an emotional jumble that never lets the audience breathe. And the ultimate problem is that Woody just has not only lost his sense of place, but the characters do not work when the emotional drift is all down hill. Woody, San Francisco may not be your cup of tea, but as a back drop, it is not New Orleans. If you are going to do Streetcar Named Desire, you have to be able to show a little more of real emotion, and realistic doom and despair. This film is an idea that was never worked out. Because the real tragedy here is the film itself, not the plot.

40 out of 73 people found the following review useful:

Great acting but the movie is rubbish

Author: sunburntcurt
25 August 2013

I have no idea what movie the people who rated this highly were watching. It certainly wasn't the one that me and a couple hundred other people watched today. Every conversation I overheard walking out was about how the acting was great but the movie was awful. There were a few people whose conversations I didn't overhear because they left the movie early.

The acting, and in particular Cate Blanchett's, was outstanding and the only reason my wife and I didn't join the others leaving early.

Let me put this in perspective: I am a big fan of Woody Allen, but this movie so was so awful that I was compelled to create an IMDb account and express my displeasure.

23 out of 44 people found the following review useful:

Woody Allen's Lousiest Movie

Author: rickscafe419 from United States
20 August 2013

Kate Blanchett gives one of the most "Oscar-worthy" performances imaginable in a horrendous film from scene one to THE END. I say that those who extol this film must find staring at dirt thrilling. Alec Baldwin is a philandering bore and should keep to TV. The movie is simply the s.o.s about the wife of an adulterer moving to the West Coast to live with her likewise adopted sister who's preference in men range from dingy dirtbags to dingy scumbags. The story of Kate who was living in the lap of luxury in New York, not knowing her husband was a Madoff style "multi" to a heartbroken one who had to escape. Woody Allen's constant and annoying flashbacks add confusion and his jazz music, perhaps trying to emulate that of the super brilliant "Midnight in Paris" falls flatter than flat. Through all the misery of this movie, one has to be astonished by the artistry, skill, poise and grace of the maaaahvelous Ms. Blanchett whom unquestionably will be an Oscar nominee come Jan.'15. I WANT A REFUND.

3 out of 6 people found the following review useful:

No sympathy for stale stereotypes

Author: tigerfish50 from Old London, New England
10 July 2014

Jasmine lives in her sumptuous New York apartment leading the privileged life of a socialite - until everything falls apart when her handsome, smooth-talking husband is exposed as a philandering real estate fraud and commits suicide in jail, leaving behind a mountain of debt. In an attempt to recover from this setback, Jasmine moves to San Francisco to live with a despised sister, who has been reduced to cramped rental properties and stereotypical blue collar, Italian boyfriends.

The film's narrative unfolds through hackneyed plot devices, and is populated by the usual collection of generic caricatures that pass for real personalities in Woody Allen's cinematic universe. It's hard to feel much sympathy for Jasmine since she's a neurotic, self-absorbed, self-pitying snob who patronizes the other characters in the same way that Allen does. While upending her sister's life, she proceeds to make another mess of her own, as she drinks too much vodka, whines about her misfortune, pops pills and tells lies to a promising new romantic prospect. Neither comedy nor drama, 'Blue Jasmine' is about as tasty and nutritious as a stale cupcake, although it does possess a few more crumbs of substance than a typical Allen film.

1 out of 3 people found the following review useful:

Left me Wanting

Author: Catherine Thompson from United States
17 July 2014

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

This movie didn't sit well with me, and it's taken me a while to figure out why: it left me wanting.

Cate Blanchett is undeniably one of the most talented actresses around. Her performance was strong. Very strong. But at the end of the day, her character's only motive was a fixation on the Park Avenue lifestyle. She goes through the motions of a complete breakdown, but that's all we get. I wanted more. I wanted to know how/why her obsession with money and status began. More importantly, I wanted to understand why it was worth self-destructing over. Many people become compelled to pursue their own definition of success, be it a house in the Hamptons or an Olympic gold medal. One's drive to obtain these things is part of complex, nuanced tale that makes it all the more compelling when they earn these things...or lose them entirely. Woody Allen does not take us on that journey. Instead, he gives us a woman skirting the edge for no other reason than a hunger for material wealth. Blanchett does a painfully wonderful job with the material she has been given, and it's a shame Woody Allen chose to write such a shallow character because it would have been a delight to see what she could do with a more substantial role.

Another thing that left me wanting is Woody Allen's attempt to portray painfully raw circumstances such as suicide and rocky family relationships. Does Alec Baldwin's character even come close to showing the horrible desperation of a man who feels overwhelmed enough to take his own life? Never. Even when he is arrested, he coolly asks about the charges and when he will be able to consult with his lawyer. He's a disposable plot device, and the film suffers for it. Baldwin's character is as one-dimensional as they come, and yet somehow we're supposed to understand that his death was a catalyst for Blanchett's meltdown? Even though we've never been shown anything other than a calculating business man intent on making money and philandering? Allen forgets again that a complex character would make this film infinitely more compelling.

I'm usually just fine with an ambiguous ending. (Life is full of ambiguity, and I often appreciate its depiction in film.) We leave Blanchett's character on a bench, where she is rambling to nobody save herself and looking utterly beaten. But her journey has been a roller coaster ride that examines nothing of substance, and so I was simply left exhausted with no understanding of why I should have invested in the journey.

12 out of 26 people found the following review useful:

Much Ado About Nothing

Author: taylor_king-890-815491 from United States
27 September 2013

This is just another typical Woody Allen film, full of emotional upheaval and short on anything else. It is a contrived story about two unrelated women, who were adopted by the same parents years ago. One (Jasmine) has "superior" genes to her "sister" (Ginger), but both end up beaten by the game of life. Jasmine from New York comes in to Ginger's life in San Francisco because of her successful husband's downfall. Through flashbacks, we see Jasmine and hubby living "the good life", full of clichéd snobby dialogue, gestures and hammy bad treatment of Ginger and first husband years ago. Fast forward to the present, where all is lost! Superficial Jasmine has become pill-popping, vodka-swilling stress bunny extraordinaire, sighing, moaning, lip-curling over Ginger's orange apartment and her loser boyfriends. Somehow, although the action is San Francisco, everyone we meet has a strong Bronx accent, and of course, the usual Woody Allen New York jazz-style soundtrack follows the action wherever we are. Simplistic and shallow as it is, Cate Blanchett tries very hard to channel Lauren Bacall and make something of her role, but cannot overcome the dumb plot and poor script.

17 out of 36 people found the following review useful:

Inept Filmmaking that Cheats the Moviegoer

Author: Danusha_Goska Save Send Delete
15 September 2013

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

"Blue Jasmine"'s ineptitude angered and offended me. Moviegoers deserve better than this amateurish botch. This review reveals key plot points. Don't read this review if you don't want to know what happens. Let's face it, though, not a lot happens in "Blue Jasmine." What does happen on screen is devoid of artistic truth, verisimilitude, insight or craft.

Jasmine (Cate Blanchett) is the beautiful widow of Hal Francis, a Bernie-Madoff like corrupt wheeler-dealer. The FBI has caught up with Hal and arrested him. He commits suicide in prison. Jasmine travels from NYC to San Francisco to live with her sister, Ginger (Sally Hawkins). Ginger used to be married to Augie (Andrew Dice Clay) but Ginger is currently involved with Chili (Bobby Cannavale.)

Jasmine tries to make a go of it. There is some tension as she is living in her sister's apartment. Jasmine gets a job, meets a man, and studies interior decorating. Things go badly and the movie ends exactly as it begins: with Jasmine talking to herself.

And that's it. That's the entire waste-of-your-time movie.

The premise is tremendous: how the wife of a Bernie-Madoff style wheeler dealer copes with her sudden stratospheric loss of income and prestige. Does she sink or swim? Is she redeemed or doomed? "Blue Jasmine" does nothing with those fascinating questions. Things are at the end of the movie exactly as they were at the beginning.

Woody Allen wrote a lifeless, inept script.

Allen tosses one potential plot element into the film after another: the aforementioned loss of money and status, mental illness, abusive relationships, adultery, prescription drugs, class relations, sister relationships, adoption, step parenting, sexual harassment at the workplace. Then Allen does absolutely nothing with any of these.

We see Hal kissing women not his wife. We see Augie talking to Hal about money. We see working class people drinking beer and watching sports on TV. None of this goes anywhere. It's all just aborted, disjointed scenes with zero verisimilitude; hollow scenes that arouse not one whit of care or involvement. I didn't believe anything in this movie. Every character's dialogue sounds so similar that I was painfully aware that it was not real people's speech, but words written by Woody Allen. Events occur with no believability.

Jasmine drops a dime on Hal as soon as he tells her that he wants to leave her for another woman. A con artist of Hal's magnitude would not do something so naïve as to tell his wife, who knows of his financial misdeeds, that he is going to dump her. She would obviously get revenge the only way she can – by immediately phoning the FBI.

Ginger is a two dimensional character. No reason is given for her to do anything she does, including taking in Jasmine. Jasmine had been rude to her earlier in the film, and Ginger is not a particularly nice person. The movie takes pains to tell us that Jasmine and Ginger were adopted, and this information serves no point whatsoever. There's no reason for Ginger to have two men: Augie and Chili are virtually the same character. Jasmine has a step son; there's no reason for him not to be her real son.

The movie tells us that Jasmine is on edge, alone and without resources. The movie lies; in other scenes, the movie tells us that Jasmine is utterly irresistible to men. Every man she meets wants to make love to her, date her, and marry her. Surely one of Hal's friends, as soon as Hal went to prison, would have scooped up luscious Jasmine, and Jasmine would have accepted.

The movie tells us that Jasmine is the kind of resourceful woman who can be born poor and marry one of the richest men in the country. How did that change and how did Jasmine become a pathetic basket case? It's just not believable.

A diplomat proposes marriage to Jasmine after dating her for about fifteen minutes. Not believable. Then he immediately cancels the engagement because Jasmine is not what he had thought. Also not believable.

It's impossible to care about any of the characters in the film, from the smarmy dentist to the diplomat who proposes to Jasmine, not just because none of them are nice or even rational people, but because they are boring, two dimensional, and lifeless.

Cate Blanchett's performance is excellent. I did get sick of the tic Allen had her, or allowed her, to perform over and over: shaking Xanax tablets out of a brown prescription bottle into her hand and swallowing them down, followed by a swig of vodka. This gesture was repeated so many times it became stale. Yes, yes, we get it – Jasmine is a nervous wreck.

This movie bugs me because it is so amazingly badly made. The most basic manual on how to construct a plot or develop a character would have steered Allen away from the choices he made. I'm angry that reviewers gave his mess a thumb's up. It's troubling that there are gifted scriptwriters out there who can't get produced while Allen's big name lures filmgoers.

0 out of 3 people found the following review useful:

Blue Jasmine: Left me green under the gills.

Author: Ck dexterhaven from United States
6 July 2014

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Jasmine (Cate Blanchett) is a wealthy socialite living in Manhattan. She's got everyone's idea of a dream life. She has lots of money, a handsome investment banker husband named Hal ,(Alec Baldwin) and a son Danny, (Charlie Tahan, Alden Ehrenreich) going to Harvard. Slowly, the dream turns into a nightmare as Jasmine hears rumors of government investigations into Hal's business dealings, and rumors of his illicit affairs with other women. Jasmine pretends to be blissfully unaware as long as she can maintain her posh lifestyle. Both rumors are true, and Hal is dragged off to jail where he unceremoniously hangs himself. Jasmine is devastated by the turn of events, and decides to live with her blue collar sister Ginger (Sally Hawkins) and her husband, Augie. (Andrew Dice Clay) Augie loses a bundle in one of Hal's investments, and leaves Ginger. Ginger starts living with a guy named Chili (Bobby Carnavale)

Jasmine tries to re-invent herself by taking night classes to learn how to be computer literate, and working at the front desk at a dental office. That plan goes horribly awry when the dentist, Dr. Flicker (Michael Stuhlberg) attacks Jasmine after she rebuffs his many advances. She quits her job and begins dating Dwight, (Peter Sarsgaard) a diplomat and a recent widower. Jasmine lies to Dwight about her occupation, the circumstances of her husband's death and her not having children, but plans to marry him anyway. Does the truth come out about Hal and Danny? Are Jasmine's plans for wedded bliss headed for ruin?

Blue Jasmine is another pedestrian effort by writer director Woody Allen. It seems like a lot of the critics like this movie, because it is written by Allen, and stars such A-List talent like Cate Blanchett. This movie aims to be the Philadelphia Story, but misses by a lot. Cate Blanchett tries to play the Katherine Hepburn role of wealthy socialite who has to mingle with the rabble, but Kate Hepburn plays a haughty diva much better than Cate Blanchett, and The Philadelphia Story is a much funnier film. Blue Jasmine feels trite, and perfunctory, it tries to adapt the same class-based themes as The Philadelphia Story without nearly as many laughs. Allen doesn't really have an ear for other ethnicities, so the Italian characters sound like stereotypes.

Blanchet is good playing an aristocratic condescending snob, but then writer Allen adds another wrinkle to her role, and now she becomes, pill popping, neurotic, aristocrat who talks to herself, and that's too much for even Blanchett to handle. She overplays the crazy lady part, and that ruined an otherwise good performance. Director Allen probably encouraged her over the top craziness, because that's how Allen played those roles himself in his early films. Sally Hawkins is horribly miscast as Blanchett's blue-collar sister. Blue collar British yes, blue collar New Yorker, no. She was fighting her accent a lot in this movie. Alec Baldwin plays Hal as a caricature of a super-rich businessman, much the same way he played Jack Donoghy on 30 Rock. But I thought Baldwin was aware of the satire in 30 Rock, but apparently not. Andrew Dice Clay plays Andrew Dice Clay, which is to say, he is a walking stereotype. Peter Sarsgaard plays the same whimpering imp he plays in all his roles. Louis CK is woefully underutilized.

One last bone I have to pick with director Allen is the pacing of this film, it's dreadfully slow, it clocked in at under two hours , but it felt much longer. The Ginger/Chili subplot was wholly unnecessary and made the story meander. Some editing would have helped pick up the pace.

Blue Jasmine: Left me green under the gills.

2 out of 7 people found the following review useful:

Horrible Movie

Author: hlarson94 from United States
1 April 2014

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

I am not an artist or get that whole artistic view of life with these movies so this is your fair warning. This is one of the worst movies I have ever seen. I watch a movie to be entertained and this left me feeling horrible for her and everyone involved, including myself. I don't want to be left with a figure-out-your own-ending or a sad ending. My purpose in watching a movie is to be entertained. I want to be left with a happy feeling for the end of the movie.

If you are an artist maybe you'll get the whole meaning to this, but I left depressed for everyone in the movie. I will not be watching another Woody Allen movie ever again.

4 out of 11 people found the following review useful:

Woody has finally found a new path for his career !

Author: nazztrader from United States
9 February 2014

After abandoning the successful early film ideas for an approach that includes the usual jazz music, pretty city scenes, obnoxious characters we don't care about, and a thin, boring, facile plot (with some kind of "happy ending"), we get something very new here. The fact that it's beyond awful (others have pointed out how laughably flawed it is in several significant ways) may not be all that important. It's been time for Woody to move on for a long time now, and now he has, producing a movie that demonstrates how clueless he can be. Up to this point, my sense was that he had become largely detached from society (and his films were never specifically political, and rarely indirectly political), though in this film it's almost like he wanted to tell us that explicitly. Moreover, one wonders if he is experiencing mental lapses, and I truly fear for his health.

If that's not the case, then the other explanation that makes sense to me is that he is exploring a new kind of self-deprecating absurdism. It's a fresh new idea, and while it falls flat on its face here, one hopes that Woody can figure out what went wrong (which could take quite a bit of time, due to the quantity) and reorganize it into something that actually works. My advice would be to introduce clearer and more frequent magical realist elements, as was the case in some of his early films. He is one of the few Americans auteurs who was willing to "go there," and he did it successfully. Instead, he creates something like this; the thought that kept entering my mind while watching it was, "Woody, what are you going for here?"

"Blue Jasmine" is "all over the map" and not enjoyable in any way. Everything Woody tried to do here has been done already in a much more convincing way. After his recent "successes" (as some apparently believe), why shouldn't Woody explore his "dark side" in an upcoming film? How often have we heard him talk about his fear of death? Why isn't that in any of his recent films, as he is now of an "advanced age?" If he has come to terms with his mortality and is at peace with it, why not make a film about it and "let us in?" He could have done that vicariously through the Cate Blanchett character, but instead we see a pampered woman who has to face the "tragedy" of being one of the "masses." Quelle horreur! Seriously, his recent films not only scream out, "I'm selling out totally," but they are a bit of an insult to us "common folk."

Wasn't this the same guy who made fun of "puckish satires of contemporary mores" in one of his early films? What would young Woody say to 2014 Woody? I don't think it would be pleasant to witness !