BEFORE: I've finally reached the end of the Woody Allen chain, 34 films I covered, after removing the ones I'd seen already. So if I have to pay $5 to watch this On Demand, that's what I'm going to do - hey, that's what I had to do for "Skyfall" at the end of the James Bond chain...
This has been one of my longest chains ever, and now I begin setting up for my next chain, which will be the films of Alfred Hitchcock, in chronological order, and that chain will be even longer. I've got most of the path there mapped out, but not all - I have determined that the path goes through Goldie Hawn and Mel Gibson. For now, linking from "To Rome With Love", Alec Baldwin carries over and makes that real simple.
THE PLOT: A New York socialite, deeply troubled and in denial, arrives in San Francisco to impose upon her sister.
AFTER: I'm so burned out on Woody Allen, I'm glad that I've reached the end of his filmography at last. If you're a regular reader of my opinion pieces, you've probably guessed what else about this film has annoyed me - namely that the scenes are not in the proper order. The film follows two timelines, one after Jasmine has arrived in San Francisco, and the other detailing the past, or perhaps it's her memories of the past.
I think the past scenes were themselves in order, which would mean that the film is essentially toggling between the present and the past, but I think whatever insights are gained by cutting back to the past at certain times are negated by the confusion caused by not following one linear timeline. It almost seems like the film starts at a very arbitrary point, and then we are shown what comes after, and slowly the mystery of what has come before is revealed. And I use the term "mystery" loosely, because if you followed a particular financial scandal a few years back, it's basically that.
The film is about the effects of the public scandal on someone's personal life - and how a woman tries to piece together what's left of her life, move to another city and try to start over. But since she's used to a lavish lifestyle, and has had a nervous breakdown, the road back to success will not be easy. Though she's determined to not repeat her mistakes, at the same time she's free to make all new ones.
Along the way she tries to get a career going, turns down her sister's boyfriend's friend as a romantic partner, and attempts to learn how to use a computer. I'm not sure I see the connection between being rich and not knowing how to find something online, unless she had someone on staff who was paid just to check her e-mail and look stuff up. Most rich people already know how to use computers, no? Or they have phones that are connected to the web, right? So I don't know if Woody Allen understands this, does he know how to use the internet? Maybe it's a generational thing.
And what is it about interior decorators? This is like the fourth Woody Allen film to feature a woman as a designer/decorator, or a woman who wants to become one. Can someone tell him that women can be doctors, lawyers, astronauts and race-car drivers now? Looking back on the last few weeks, the only professional woman I can think of is Helen Hunt playing an efficiency expert in "Curse of the Jade Scorpion", and all of his other female characters are just students and rich housewives, maybe the occasional wanna-be writer. If anyone's looking for a thesis subject, how about the gender roles in Woody Allen films?
The trivia section on IMDB is telling me that this film was loosely based on "A Streetcar Named Desire", but I'm not seeing much of a connection. Perhaps if I review that play's plot I'll gain some insight. But you know what Tennessee Williams did? He put the earliest scene first and he put the ending scenes at the end, because that's generally what you should do.
Also starring Cate Blanchett (last seen in "The Shipping News"), Sally Hawkins (last seen in "Cassandra's Dream"), Andrew Dice Clay, Bobby Cannavale (last seen in "The Bone Collector"), Max Casella (last heard in "Dinosaur"), Louis C.K., Peter Sarsgaard (last seen in "The Man in the Iron Mask").
RATING: 5 out of 10 bottles of vodka
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