Here's why Cate Blanchett's performance in Blue Jasmine is one of the best of all time.
Blanchett, like her character, is constantly on the verge of a nervous breakdown, but her oeuvre is full of fireballs of humor, touches of consciousness, and an exquisite amount of grief. On the surface, Jasmine appears to be a reckless and spiteful woman, but Blanchett delicately peels back the layers of the character and reveals that she harbors guilt and sorrow resulting from an uncontrollable illusion. It's a mind-boggling jumble of antithetical moods, voice-level switches, and indirectly communicated emotions, all of which are spot-on. Her ability to deliver and exhibit a never-ending list of venomous insults, martini-soaked monologues, and escalating fluctuations of emotion with dead-on precision is absolutely compelling and captivating. It's unnervingly peaceful yet utterly insane.