Cate Blanchett: 5 Awesome Performances And 5 That Sucked

1. Jeanette €œJasmine€ Francis €“ Blue Jasmine (2013)

Blanchett's most recent awards success €“ netting her the Academy Award, BAFTA, Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award For Best Lead Actress €“ was, obviously, well deserved. A shame one of her all-time best performances had to come in a Woody Allen film, which seems a bit like one of those monkey paw wishes that comes with a terrible price. Anyway, despite working with a scumbag's script she made gold. Manhattan socialite Jasmine is not an easy character to make sympathetic. Even less so when she's forced to leave her life of leisure, following her businessman husband's arrest for dodgy dealing and death, and is forced to shack up with her working-class sister and her husband. Which she doesn't take well. Throughout Blue Jasmine the film makes it intensely difficult to sympathise with Jasmine, but Blanchett's portrayal is so well-rounded and real and human that even when she's being an awful sh*t to everyone around her, she still feels like a real person. One who's much more complex than simply an entitled nasty lady. It's a combination of script and actor that's made Cate Blanchett's best roles just that. But then there are the times when it's not quite up to snuff...