hyped garbage

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Allusions to O'Neill and Hamlet, the mood of inevitable tragedy, well acted and well presented. A worthy evening's entertainment.

The best thing I like about Wonder Wheel is Woody Allen marvelous re-creation of the Coney Island scene in the 50s where and when he and I both grew up in Brooklyn. The cyclone rollercoaster, the parachute drop, and of course the storied Wonder Wheel are all still there as is Nathan's hotdogs which we never did see. But as Justin Timberlake whose character narrates the film the fabled sandbar amusement park with the old Boardwalk was starting to show signs of decay and seediness. It reached its heights in the 80s but is now turning around. They've built a baseball stadium for the Single A Brooklyn Cyclones now and they draw very well. Given the area a much needed growth spurt. A couple Jim Belushi and Kate Winslet live at and run a carousel concession and business is always in streaks. Implied quite truthfully is that this is a six month business. Coney Island closes down for the most part, No one there to ride Belushi's carousel and Timberlake's services as a lifeguard on the beach are not needed.Which works out perfectly for Timberlake who is going to graduate school most likely on the GI bill and lifeguarding supplements his income. He's a World War II navy veteran and he's lived a glamorous life at least in the eyes stepmother Kate Winslet and stepdaughter Juno Temple whom the hunky lifeguard gets involved with.Winslet is married to Temple's father Belushi. It's the second marriage for both and she has a son Jack Gore by her first marriage who is in some serious need of mental health therapy. The boy likes to start fires and might even burn them out of house, home and carousel the little pyromaniac.Temple is on the run from the gangster husband she married. She was most indiscreet in a business which discretion is the lifeblood.Winslet gets the acting honors her portrayal of a woman in love with love who blows up one marriage with her lustful habits and is getting ready to blow up another with her affair with Timberlake. Timberlake's role is a strange one. Imagine a hunky Woody Allen and you've got his character. All the constant self analyzing in Allen protagonists are present here. It's in character as Timberlake is an English major looking to write. He's both involved in the story, but also trying to keep a certain distant perspective. I also have to say that as a Brooklynite, Timberlake does well but just doesn't ring true Brooklyn in spots.I must say Jim Belushi brings a certain layer of depth to his character. He's a broken down middle-aged failure, going to seed as is the area that surrounds him. He's a drunk and a wife beater, but you do feel sorry for him. I lived it there and I can certainly attest to the ambience that my fellow Brooklyn born Woody Allen brings to this film.

I can see coming to this a bit later why it got some negative reviews and didn't do well with audiences: our main character here (as seen through the eyes of lifeguard Justin Timberlake), as played by Kate Winslet, is a miserable person. I don't know how much of that translated as her being just unhappy or that her misery turned her so much into being unlikable that it turned off audiences. It's certainly not an easy movie to take in that regard, as Ginny is not someone who is only in a loveless marriage (that may be arguable too as Jim Belushi's character has love for her, just not much on the return side), or with a hopeless kid (who is a pyro, which I'll get to in a moment), but who's dreams were completely dashed for... one of those ordinary, hard-knock lives that, well, we all leave. I think if Woody Allen had tried to present this script to Brian Cox in ADAPTATION he'd have been yelled at and forced out of his class.While Ginny is unhappy and ultimately does some bad things (one that she can never walk back from even if she tried), I think it was wise for Allen to cast Kate Winslet. Like Cate Blanchett a couple years ago in Blue Jasmine, this is a BIG character in how she projects herself, only her delusions of grandeur only come out when she isn't quite so unhappy around the Timberlake character. She wanted to be an actress but had to give it up, as so many of us give up the things we want to be or strive for, to... marry and have a kid (though a former husband/lover is alluded to as well). On top of this, the whole surrounding I think has to be deliberate; set this movie on a regular street corner and it wouldn't have the same pop. Here, there may be a suggestion of the carnival going on with the setting on Coney Island - Allen channeling Fellini and other giant-emotional Italian filmmakers but on a different level - as there's all this fun around everyone and yet life is the continuous struggle it always is, and compounded by that.But back to Winslet, there's something about her as a presence on screen where you instinctively want to feel sympathy for her, and her star quality lends itself to that (maybe Allen was aiming for a sort of Joan Crawford thing here too, I can't be sure). I think with someone else, it would be much more difficult to watch what Ginny does and becomes her, the decisions she makes with this "poetic" lifeguard, and that the tone is SO theatrical. The lighting reflects this too, as Storaro in some scenes will change the lighting as if it were on stage, as characters like Ginny talk about something and it becomes redder or bluer or more orange or white. The setting helps to accentuate this, and I liked that aspect of it. And along with Winslet, Belushi, Temple and Timberlake are playing to the balcony.Again, I can see why this doesn't work for a lot of people. There were times watching it when I thought it was going TOO big even within the context Allen had set up. And it's not exactly the newest kind of ground for Allen (though in full disclosure, infidelity dramas are like catnip for me). But I still felt engaged because the writing of them was interesting, and I found it fascinating how Allen was navigating this look and feel that was hyper-realistic, of the color scheme being so bright and popping out like out of a selection of postcards from the era, and yet having dialog that attempts at least to stay in realism... except when monologues come flying and the theatrical comes around again. And Ginny's son fits in as a running-gag as metaphor; no matter what traditional punishment comes (spanking) or in psychological ways (therapy), the kid will continue to burn things because the fire is... something that's tangible, I suppose (love doesn't seem to be there at any rate - do we ever see Ginny actually show affection for her son? Doesn't seem like it to me, with the migranes and self-involvement).I'm not sure it all works, but enough of it did, plus the performances, that I'd put it in the category (like Cafe Society) as a very strong minor work (or a decent major one).

In true fashion for Woody Allen, this story follows his passion for melodramatic stories, as a Coney Island Lifeguard (Justin Timberlake) tells the tale of his love affair with a woman many years his senior (Kate Winslet) and the visitor who turns their lives upside down.This is by all accounts a Woody Allen film, layered with the narrating guide, complex characters, love affairs, nostalgic vision and melodrama - Allen is back at it again with his usual form, but it's certainly no Manhattan or Blue Jasmine. The nostalgic tone in which Allen tells this tale is wonderfully sweeping, the characters are fittingly complex but there is a lack of care given to the story. Evidently, the desired effect is a swooning melodrama but what disturbs this is the stilted and neck jerking dialogue. The witty, sharp and echoing notes from the likes of Annie Hall are all but forgotten, the dialogue is wooden, clunky and artificial, it all but puts the brakes on every performance in the film and the drama itself.Performances neither fall flat or excel and only a few are even believable as people rather than characters, as they sound overplayed and over-written. Emotionally Wonder Wheel works for the most part but the characters feel forced, through the overwritten development of their stories and a side plot that never capitalizes on its own tension and barely begs interest, Wonder Wheel misses its melodramatic mark. The love affairs and jealousy can only hold interest for wavering periods and the fantastical setting of Coney Island barely warrants a footnote, Allen vastly underuses the setting of Coney Island as a backdrop but he does stage scenes with the same precision that is expected of him. Winslet also gives her all to her part, it gives her character and much of the story its honest and engrossing appeal and overshadows her co-stars, Temple never gets a moment in the limelight, Timberlake figuratively never leaves the water and Belushi is an overcooked caricature.Wonder Wheel is however, surprisingly stylish, with enticing cinematography and a dapper soundtrack to boot. Allen's nostalgia-driven vision for this piece shines in this regard, there is an old-world style of beauty about it, even incorporating older techniques of lighting as well as camera work, bringing to the forefront that this is a movie that was made, a way of filmmaking that is somewhat lost today in favor of all-encompassing plainness.Wonder Wheel is an echo of Woody Allen's filmmaking, it's stylishly sharp, enticing and sweeping with a nostalgic flair that adds delight to the picture. However, the stunted and artificial dialogue pales to Allen's former work and is uncharacteristically disruptive, damaging the performances, extensive melodrama and evocative storytelling. Wonder Wheel sits dismally in Allen's impressive and vast body of work and is largely forgettable.