Wonder Wheel (Film)
Has Woody Allen lost his touch?
Wonder Wheel, his 50th ish film, just released in cinemas, is, to put it bluntly, not very good. While there are some elements to the film that are good, overall Wonder Wheel is a sign that perhaps Allen should just hang up his directors hat and call it a career.
In Wonder Wheel (a reference to the giant Ferris Wheel in Coney Island), Kate Winslet plays Ginny, a still beautiful yet a bit over-the-hill former aspiring actress and now living in an apartment smack dab overlooking Brooklyn’s famous Coney Island. She’s married to the schlub Humpty (geez, what a name – played admirably by Jim Belushi), who runs the merry-go-round, and they have a young son who happens to enjoy lighting fires.
Ginny, happens, one day, to notice lifeguard Mickey (an overreaching Justin Timberlake). She takes a fancy to him, and he takes a fancy to her, and before you know it they are having an affair. But Ginny is very insecure, and the minute Mickey even looks at another woman, Ginny can’t handle it. Worse yet, Humpty’s beautiful, and young, daughter Carolina (Juno Temple) comes to stay with them (she also has the mafia on her tale – but it’s a subplot to distract from there ever being a good plot), and, yes you guessed it, somehow Mickey and Carolina meet and Ginny’s fantasies of escaping her humdrum life are over.
Winslet is pulling out all stops as an actress and ends up being a bit too much. Her Ginny is both extremely insecure and perhaps a bit crazy, and Winslet can’t quite stop overacting. And while Belushi and Temple are both fine in their roles, it’s the overall arc of the story and the not very believable locating setting that will make you not believe what you’ve seen. Allen, who wrote and directed this film, desperately needs to rethink his next movie. He’s already shot A Rainy Day in New York and it stars hot young Oscar nominated Timothée Chalamet. Don’t hold your breathe.
