Cate Blanchett nails lead role in Woody Allen movie Blue Jasmine Australian actress Cate Blanchett in a scene from Blue Jasmine. THE first reviews of Woody Allen's latest film, Blue Jasmine, are out. And critics have been uncharacteristically united in their enthusiasm for Cate Blanchett's performance. "Mesmerising," was Variety's response to the Oscar-winning actress's interpretation of the title character, inspired by A Streetcar Named Desire's Blanche DuBois. "Quivering with barely repressed rage, at times muttering to herself as she stares blankly into the void, Jasmine instantly takes her place among the most dynamic female protagonists in the Allen oeuvre, which is no small feat," said senior film critic Justin Chang. It's a brilliantly bipolar piece of acting, bringing an almost Method rawness to the writer's typically refined dialogue. Blanchett a 'mesmerising' neurotic Source: Supplied "What gives Blanchett's performance such force is how expertly she modulates her character's mood swings," Chang continued. One minute she's a pill-popping, bleary-eyed wreck, the next she's a vision of radiant, sylphlike elegance (especially in an array of stunning outfits designed by Suzy Benzinger), cozying up to a handsome diplomat (Peter Sarsgaard) who may hold the key to her future. Blanchett plays a New York socialite who heads west after losing her husband (Alec Baldwin) and their ill-gotten fortune in what Variety described as a "long-overdue return to San Francisco" for Woody Allen. Cate Blanchett in a scene from Blue Jasmine. The Hollywood Reporter also gave Blanchett the thumbs up, describing her as a "tour de force." According to veteran critic Todd McCarthy, Blanchett's textured performance "lies at the centre of the film and defines its achievement." Blanchett, who stepped down as co-artistic director of the Sydney Theatre Company last year, has a number of other plum film projects lined up for the coming 12 months, including George Clooney's World War II drama The Monuments Men, Todd Haynes' adaptation of the Patricia Highsmith novel Carol (aka The Price of Salt), to be distributed by Oscars experts The Weinstein Company in the US, and Kenneth Branagh's Cinderella. Blue Jasmine opens in Australia on September 5.