REVIEW: Wonder Wheel

Directed by Woody Allen
2017 Drama
1 hour, 41 mins
From Amazon Studios

Starring
Kate Winslet
Justin Timberlake
Juno Temple
Jim Belushi
Jack Gore

It's a wonder I got to see this today with Wonder also playing at the same theater.  I told the young chap to make sure he gave me the ticket to the right movie... and how funny is this... he didn't.  Throughout this year there were these two and also Wonder Woman, Marston and the Wonder Women and Wonderstruck as well.  I think that's just too much wondering for one year.  Trust me, somewhere out there a partner is going to say to another that they should go see this film and the other is going to respond that they already have seen it.

It is a downer from start to finish.  There's just no getting around it.  I recommend a silly comedy as quickly as you can get to one after seeing this.  That does not mean I didn't like it... did you notice those three stars?  I might have liked a modicum of happiness and a little more scissor work in the editing room.  If you're thinking at this point that it may not be for you, I am recommending you see something else because you'd be right.

I, however, love Winslet and appear to not miss her films.  I also love stories that emphasize character over action (although just try to keep me from a good, realistic action film) and stories that are written well.  Woody Allen is an insightful writer.  No one seems to understand and have an ability to portray down in the dumps better than Allen. I have had a love-hate relationship with his many comedies but he seems to be turning to drama more and more and I have liked them all.  He has masked dour and depression in comedy for years but his dramas can wear one out.

At the core of the film is the crushing weight of poverty but included are ample doses of serious family dysfunction, a wife who is not in love with her husband, unbridled jealousy, not to mention lies, deceit and disrespect. 

We'll let you in on the main characters but to reveal what happens to their lives even midway through the film would be a slight I don't wish to make.  The family works at the amusement park at Coney Island in the 50's.  Humpty (Belushi) runs the ferris wheel, called Wonder Wheel, while wife Ginny (Winslet) works as a waitress on the property.  As misfortune would have it, they also have an upper-floor apartment on the property.  Outside of their living room window is, in fact, Wonder Wheel, turning, turning, turning and Ginny thinks she'll go mad hearing that monotonous music that often accompanies amusement park rides.

He takes things more in stride than his wife is able to do.  He's a loud, uneducated, pot-bellied slob who is trying to do the best he can.  A former boozer and wife-beater, he's eased up on both of them at the point of the story.  She is worn out... life has done that to her. She says she once acted but it's apparent that it's been awhile since she had a dream come true.  She complains of constant headaches... actually she just complains.

There are two children who are issues as well.  She has a young son (Gore) from a former marriage who loves going to the movies and  setting fires... some potentially serious and life-threatening.  He appears traumatized by his mother's behavior.  He and his stepfather detest one another.  The film opens with Humpty's 26-year old daughter Carolina returning home after years of being estranged from her father.  She throws everyone into a tizzy when she advises she has run away from her gangster husband and he has threatened to find her and kill her.

Ginny has been sleeping with some years-younger lifeguard Mickey (Timberlake) for some time, which they have kept a well-guarded secret.  He wants to be a playwright and sees life lighter and with more hope than the others do.  Allen has not only made Mickey the narrator of the film but he has Mickey do it visually as well, looking directly at the camera.  That gimmick doesn't always work in films but it works well here, chiefly, perhaps, because Mickey is hopeful and upbeat.  

If one thinks the stepfather-stepson doesn't work, it doesn't hold a candle to the stepmother-stepdaughter ruckus that gets kicked up despite the fact that father and daughter have mended fences.  These are people who don't know how to talk to one another and that fact certainly causes a fair share of drama as the second half of the film unfolds.

While I suspect there won't be any Oscar nominations for acting, that doesn't mean they didn't all step up to the plate.  Belushi has played this kind of role before and he inhabits it well.  One feels a bit sorry for Humpty because he's trying and he's saddened because his wife has given up.

Winslet's character is not trying and it will be difficult for some to feel much empathy for her.  Her circumstances are dire and she's losing her grip.  Clearly not a heroine, I cannot recall the actress ever playing a part quite like this one.

I like Temple.  I think it's her kewpie-doll demeanor that fascinates me.  Fascinating is what this character must be and she certainly works her magic.

There were moments I wasn't sure I liked Timberlake's acting and then I thought it was some of his lines that I didn't like but I accepted it as Mickey being charming in his 1950's sort of way.

One of my favorite things about Allen movies is how he incorporates a city into his story.  Whether it's been Manhattan or London or Paris, Allen makes the city an important costar.  Here he does it with Coney Island.  He captures every colorful nuance of carnival life and though the amusement park portion is long gone, he must have been there and knew how he wanted his sets built.

He also completely captures the 1950's with just the right look in clothing, hairstyles, language and vintage everything.  It was, of course, all heightened by a gorgeous catalog of famous songs from the time.

The lighting of this film, particularly of faces, was a total delight, with special attention paid to a front seat car scene between Temple and Timberlake.  This is the second time Allen and ace cinematographer Vittorio Storaro have worked together and I hope they have another go at it.

I loved the fifties (as you will see when we highlight that decade) and in 1956 our family visited New York so my father could attend a navy reunion.  I remember one day we saw the film, Trapeze, early in the day and then went to Coney Island.  One of my reasons for seeing Wonder Wheel was to see if that mood, that time, was done well enough to take me back.  It was and it did.  There were several aspects of the story that could have been taken out of my own life.

It reminded me a great deal of the 1952 Barbara Stanwyck/Paul Douglas/Robert Ryan movie, Clash by Night, on several levels and I detected a little Streetcar Named Desire, too.  Hmmmm.  Allen loves homages.

Many critics have been dismissive of the film... some unjustly calling it the worst of Allen's career.  I was entranced by it... especially its look at the 50's and its central theme of the horrors of poverty.  


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