What makes the film so effective is it's partial use of a non-linear narrative structure, which holds the audience's interest due to their growing desire to discover what will happen next in both time frames, as small sections of the plot are slowly revealed and elements of the character's pasts are hinted at but not fully revealed until later points, meaning it is very difficult to describe the plot without giving too much away. Essentially, it is about a wealthy woman named Jasmine, played by Cate Blanchett, who goes to live with her sister, played by Sally Hawkins, after a dramatic fall from grace, being brutally forced to experience the real world for the first time.
Whilst I already mentioned the brilliant way in which the non-linear narrative structure creates tension, this is also helped by the clever way in which the scenes are put together, which links the two time frames and slowly builds the tension up until it is released during an incredibly effective finale. On the other hand ,all throughout the film, a laid back atmosphere is created though the use of music, which helps to make later scenes even more powerful.
However , the storyline can also drag at times, as there is rather a lot of repetition, emphasizing the same points over and over and over again, without really developing the plot beyond a certain point, meaning that whilst the majority of the film feels like it is building up to something huge due to the aforementioned narrative structure, it never really delivers and in the end audience members will be left saying 'was that it then?'
What makes this film so good despite these problems is the absolutely incredible performance of Cate Blanchett, who single handedly holds the film together. She shines in every scene, and every minute detail of her character's behaviour is finely tuned by the actress to express every emotion in incredible depth and making her character's fate seem more dramatic than anyone else could have made it.
Overall, whilst in many ways this film does not really work, it is fairly entertaining and is worth watching for Cate Blanchett's performance alone.
