In seeing the trailer of the new Woody Allen film, Blue Jasmine, I thought, Street Car Named Desire!  In seeing the film today, yes!  It is interesting to see the background to the lead character, Jeanette (Jasmine) through Walter Mitty-like flashbacks, and this version of Streetcar’s  does in fact go into areas that could have been explored more.  The statements made that indicate Jasmine is a user when convenient, is evident to Streetcar’s plot, yet the absence of the uneasiness caused by the affair that occurs in Streetcar is replaced but the uneasiness caused by the volatile state Jasmine is in, as well as the deceptive paths she stumbles into. As watching the play Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, I think I remembered watching this in the Shakespeare Festival in Canada with my Slippery Rock class years ago, I left the theatre shaken and stressed, my nerves tight as a drum.  However, the objective of the film, was achieved in presenting unsettling situations, being somewhat dealt with,but not well.    

In talking about Andrew Dice Clay and Cate Blanchett, (I felt the actresses that stood out the most), I am amazed at the depth and volume of emotion that rolls out from the stage.  Cate Blanchett seems to be everywhere, and where she is, success seems to follow.  Alec Baldwin never does seem to put on a full stream of emotion in his acting, yet he seems similar here, where he played a role that did not require his full intensity, and yet, it worked with seemingly the most emotion coming from Blanchett and Sally Hawkins.  I haven’t seen Andrew Dice Clay in years but his role works very well and effectively.  The strikingness between Bobby Cannavale and Andrew Dice Clay was not lost on me at all.  Unlike Streetcar, I was drawn to Sally Hawkins (Ginger) as the foil of Cate Blanchett and sympathized with her at times more than her disturbed estranged sister in law, Jeanette. 

This whole connection and series of plot difficulties was well pulled off, but you might want to have the same Xanex or place of refuge waiting as, it is that good!