Wonder Wheel (2017)
The story of four characters whose lives intertwine amid the hustle and bustle of the Coney Island amusement park in the 1950s: Ginny, an emotionally volatile former actress now working as a waitress in a clam house; Humpty, Ginny’s rough-hewn carousel operator husband; Mickey, a handsome young lifeguard who dreams of becoming a playwright; and Carolina, Humpty’s long-estranged daughter, who is now hiding out from gangsters at her father’s apartment.
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Woody Allen's latest is a typical foray into 50's Americana, the adulterous affair gone wrong. Justin Timberlake, an astute & well rounded lifeguard narrates the proceedings as he engages a love affair w/Kate Winslet whose marriage is on the rocks from James Belushi & his now estranged daughter, Juno Temple, comes into Coney Island on the lam from her mobster husband. Being too much of a good thing, Allen hedges his bets by telegraphing much of the story beats too soon & writing his characters too on the nose (an affectation that occasionally confounds viewers since his creations reflect too much of his interests rather than stepping out from their bubble organically). A solid miss but the gorgeous cinematography by Vittorio Storaro is worth a viewing.
Allusions to O'Neill and Hamlet, the mood of inevitable tragedy, well acted and well presented. A worthy evening's entertainment.
I won't regale you with the plot - too many reviewers have accomplished that already with massive grace and style. I will say the story itself has a wonderful premise. The acting was superb and I was quite enjoying the interactions and complexities. But, that being said, this ending was a bit too much for me and was so disappointing that it made the rest of the story....forgettable. I cannot get the ending out of my head.
This release could have been a success for someone else, but in terms of Woody Allen's art, it is nothing short of a failure. What could have been a fascinating and intriguing story turned out into 90 minutes of yelling and screaming, restlessly delivered by Kate Winslet (Ginny). The annoyance created by her overacting and overreacting is so powerful and negative that it precludes from appreciating the solid performance delivered by Jim Belushi (Humpty). I love dialogues in Woody Allen movies for their sophistication and humor, but this times the dialogues were monotonous and hopelessly shallow. Lastly, the movie has no ending. It looks like someone just cut off the finale, making me feel as if the box office attendant just shut down the window in front of me after I have waited in a long line for along time.