December
11
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Wonder Wheel (2017)
Brooklyn’s Coney Island represents unbridled fun but is also a metaphor for the fickleness of the American Dream. The promise of happiness calls out from behind facades of colour and bright lights but offers too brief respite from the harsh realities of life. Woody Allen’s Wonder Wheel (2017) uses this tension between appearances and reality in almost every scene.
Set in the 1950s, a messy plot is overlaid with a nostalgic recreation of the noisy atmosphere of Brooklyn’s fun fair that is run by social fringe-dwellers with spent dreams. Short-tempered Humpty (Jim Belushi) barely makes a living running the carousel wheel and lives with wife Ginny (Kate Winslett) in a cramped first floor apartment that was once a freak show gallery. The spectacle and noise of the carnival is a constant backdrop to the claustrophobic space that feels like a cage for prowling primates. Humpty struggles to stay off the booze while Ginny is a tormented soul in her loveless marriage. She lives out the memories of her abandoned acting career through a melodramatic affair with lifeguard Mickey (Justin Timberlake), the wannabe scriptwriter and know-all narrator who is always telling us how to interpret the story. Humpty’s estranged 25-year old daughter Carolina (Juno Temple) arrives, fleeing from the mob after talking to the FBI and needs a place to hide. She falls for Mickey and Ginny falls apart, but not before she stumbles onto a callous but perfectly undetectable scheme for murder.
Wonder Wheel has all the hallmarks of classic early American theatrical melodrama: the apartment set is designed around semi-enclosed stage rooms and the acting style is hyper-dramatized. It is heavy with dialogue and prolonged monologues that feel as if the film is trying hard to tell rather than show. Humpty’s temper tantrums are repetitive, Mickey’s pretentious narration is irritatingly self-indulgent and Ginny’s self-conscious and over-cooked ramblings become wearying. Like her budding pyromaniac son from her first marriage, she tries to crash and burn the things she hates in life without giving the audience a reason to care. She is desperate to play one of the oldest roles in theatre: the older woman who thwarts her rival for romance, runs away with the younger man, and is set free from her mid-life identity chains. But after the fun of Coney Island, reality must return and the wheel of life keeps spinning.
If you are a fan of theatre the performances might please but as cinema it feels forced. The script, dialogue, and characters are unconvincing, although the filming and period sets are excellent. While Kate Winslet’s performance is over-stylised it is memorable for its intensity. In the Weinstein/Trump climate, Woody Allen’s work is being shunned by many, but that is not why Wonder Wheel is struggling critically. Simply put, it is far from his best work.
Director: Woody Allen
Stars: Jim Belushi, Kate Winslet, Justin Timberlake, Juno Temple
CineMuseFilms 
Guess I’ll give this a miss 🙂
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You nailed it with “overcooked melodrama.” I agree.
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Actually he’d lost me at “Woody Allen” 😀 I struggle with even his most popular films.
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Now, now, Gwen. Woody in his heyday (ignoring the weirdness in his personal life) produced several memorable films. Few directors can claim to have created their own genre like his angst/whimsy-infused comedic drama. How could anyone not love Midnight in Paris, Cafe Society, Annie Hall, Blue Jasmine, Hannah and her Sisters, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, etc. But his time has past.
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I think it was the overblown angst and weird choppy direction that made everything looked stage-managed that lost me. But I’ll acknowledge that I watched those films and enjoyed them despite that irritation. 😀
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You have made my day Gwen!
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Prowling primates! I love it! I’ve always struggled with Woody Allen…even before his strange private life spilled into the headlines. I usually feel like I’d just like to slap his characters (which are usually stand-ins for his own neurotic self) upside the head. Since I’ve never slapped anyone in my life, that is my own neurotic fantasy. 😉
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LOL! I’m a closet Woody Allen fan; he channels my inner multiple-personality complex.
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Good thing you’re too far away for me to slap! 😉
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Another of Woody’s declining efforts. This film was like a cross between Cafe Society and Blue Jasmin, but ultimately not as good as either. Like Cafe Society, it beautifully recreated the costumes and the atmosphere of a chunk of America’s past – the film looks really good and convincing.
But like Blue Jasmine, it’s an old-fashioned Tennessee Williams-style melodrama of a type that doesn’t usually work nowadays (although Blue Jasmine just managed to do it thanks to a somewhat better script and our Cate). I think Woody should stick to his mildly amusing comedies rather than making poor melodramas.
Let’s see what his next effort is like in 11 months from now. He’s nothing if not regular.
Thanks for the reviews again this year, Richard. Peter
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It must be hard picking the time to exit such a career but it is surely soon. Thanks for your thoughts.
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CineMuse, I’m mid-viewing right now and I agree with everything you’ve written so well. Strangely, I’m rather enjoying it despite its overwrought storyline and characters. Perhaps there’s a faint memory of life in the fifties when I was a very young child.
I don’t know, maybe I’m just in the mood. This happens sometimes and there’s no explaining it. The ending promises to be quite predictable but I’ll see it through.
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I understand exactly Anita; you can like and dislike a film at the same time. This film leaves memories in your brain.
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