44-year-old Australian actress Cate Blanchett had been nominated three times as Best Actress in the Oscars in the past. As a matter of fact, she won an Oscar way back in 2005, but in the Best Supporting Actress category for her role in The Aviator where she appeared alongside actors Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Beckinsale.

It seems the actress outdid her craft again in Woody Allen’s new movie Blue Jasmine, as recently it has been revealed the actress is an early frontrunner in this year’s Oscars for the Best Actress accolade.

Astounding Performance

Cate plays a fallen socialite in Blue Jasmine, a movie written and directed by Woody Allen. The film poignantly puts into mind the vintage play by Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire. As for critics who saw the movie, they raved about how Miss Blanchett was able to portray the role of a ruined Park Avenue princess very convincingly.

Telegraphic critic Tim Robey commented on how she was fascinating throughout the movie which will turn into ‘a very likely fast track to Best Actress glory’.

“It will need a miraculous performance to defeat her,” the Mail added.

Still, another film critic Chris Tookey had stated, “Cate Blanchett leads an impeccable cast in Allen’s 46th film as director.”

Most movie commentators have discussed how the actress was very successful in cross-acting her character in A Streetcar Named Desire (Blanche DuBois) and Shakespeare’s Lady Macbeth.

Cate gave an almost tangible electrical charge to the main character in the movie with the slightest glance or crook of her head or the incessant talking she did to herself – all these gestures seemed to realistically point to the state of the character she was playing.

“‘You hire her and get out of the way,’ Allen stated with a tinge of modesty, who built the film’s success around the superb acting of the leading lady.

Blue Jasmine

Blue Jasmine’s story revolves around the socialite Jasmine who has fallen on hard times due to her husband’s imprisonment over shadowy business deals. Blanchett’s husband in the movie, named Hal, is played by actor Alec Baldwin.

Broke and addicted to alcohol and pills, she moves in with her sister, Ginger, who was living modestly in San Francisco. She arrives in Ginger’s cramped apartment where she was to live for a few weeks and proceeds to try and regain some of her former lifestyle – the wealth and status – all the while battling depression and on the verge of suffering from a nervous breakdown.

Woody Allen chose to deal with Jasmine’s story by intertwining it with who she was before Hal’s imprisonment, to make sense of she was acting the way she is. It seems Allen has played with the movie’s theme – which tackles self-delusions and how far they will get you – very well.

The movie premiered last July in New York, and was also shown at the Cannes Film Festival.

Meanwhile, Cate Blanchett is currently filming another upcoming movie, Kenneth Branagh’s Cinderella.