The Foreign Service on Screen: Blue Jasmine

Typical FSO

Generally, Hollywood has been pretty light on depictions of diplomats in action. This is not a surprise: the behind-the-scenes work of most embassies looks fairly dull and bureaucratic from the outside. When members of the Foreign Service do appear it's usually in the form of ambassadors and Special Envoys and other sexier, flashier roles.

Occasionally, though, one of the Lower Orders does sneak in. Blue Jasmine, one of Woody Allen's more recent efforts, tells the story of the titular Jasmine, the widow of a crooked billionaire who has fallen on hard times and must rely on the support of her much-maligned working class sister. In short, it's an updated version of A Streetcar Named Desire.

Along the way, Jasmine meets Dwight (Peter Sarsgaard), who really does introduce himself by humbly saying "I work for the State Department." We don't, I think, ever get his actual title. What 'working for the State Department'  means, apparently, is that he gets regular postings to Paris and Vienna, has high political ambitions, and has scads of money to spend on decorating his enormous bayside mansion.

Really, Dwight? No postings to Mexico City, or Riga, or Accra, or even Port Moresby? Where are you getting the money for that giant house? And why do you have so much free time to hobnob around San Francisco?

In a way, it's nice to know that people still think of being a diplomat as a glamorous and desirable profession. Not doing much for our image as pin-striped cookie pushers, though.