Review: Wonder Wheel

In Woody Allen's latest cinematic memory palace, Wonder Wheel, a lifeguard by summer, aspiring playwright by fall named Mickey Rubin (Justin Timberlake) recounts his summer affair with Ginny Rannell (Kate Winslet), a never-was actress resigned to an unhappy marriage to the abusive and alcoholic Humpty (Jim Belushi). Neither her marital status nor her age - she's approaching 40, he's in his early twenties - are deterrents for Mickey, who acknowledges that she is not the first married woman that he's found beautiful. If anything, the inherent drama in their situation, combined with her aura of desperation and vulnerability, fuel his attraction.

It's fairly clear that things won't end well, since Ginny is more emotionally invested in their relationship than Mickey is. Plus there's the unexpected arrival of Carolina (Juno Temple), Humpty's daughter from his first marriage, who is on the run from the mob after her husband gets into some trouble with them. Her drama and comparative worldliness to Ginny becomes more of an aphrodisiac to Mickey, whose fading interest becomes yet another burden for Ginny to bear. If Ginny's first husband taught her what love was and Humpty taught her what it was not, then Mickey is a chance for her to give the love she still has within her to someone she wants to give it to. Yet, even she has some sense that she is destined to eternal misery as she notes, "I brought my troubles on myself."

Wonder Wheel, set in the Coney Island of the Fifties, is Allen's ode to playwrights such as Arthur Miller, Eugene O'Neill, Tennessee Williams, and Clifford Odets. One can see shades of Miller's A View from the Bridge in Humpty's love for Carolina, whom he believes too fine to be a waitress like Ginny. Humpty and Ginny themselves seem variations of Williams' Stanley and Stella Kowalski, though certainly Ginny bears more of Blanche DuBois' DNA in her character much like Cate Blanchett's Jasmine did in Blue Jasmine, which is a less whimsical though equally dark and fatalistic effort. In fact, Ginny and Jasmine could be soul sisters for both Wonder Wheel and Blue Jasmine are very much about women unravelling and armouring themselves against their realities with increasingly calcifying illusions.

That Ginny was a one-time stage actress aids her in dealing with her life. She tells Mickey that she's only playing the part of a waitress, she rehearses how she'll reveal that she's a married woman to Mickey before they meet under the boardwalk, she even notes that Mickey would have "ruined her grand finale" if she had gone through with her plan to drown herself. Her final encounter with Mickey finds her recalling Norma Desmond at the end of Sunset Boulevard, his presence merely a prop for her inexorably deluded monologue.

Winslet is nothing less than stunning here, perhaps turning in her most complex and layered performance as she tracks Ginny's deterioration. Initially, her Ginny feels too broad and overly mannered, but then Winslet suddenly exposes the raw nerves and one is swept up in the vortex of emotions that she conjures. One wishes for more of Temple, not only because she does very fine work here but also since she is the only one who comes close to matching Winslet's level. Neither Belushi and Timberlake both look the part, but they're less successful in preventing their characters from becoming caricatures.

Wonder Wheel is, despite its content, not a decidedly weighty concoction. Some scenes feel extraneous and by-the-numbers, the characters on paper feel thinly written, and yet... Wonder Wheel is ravishing to look at. Cinematographer Vittorio Storaro and production designer Santo Loquasto prove once again that their craftsmanship is second to none. One could watch Carolina walk through the beautifully recreated Coney Island fairground as Storaro's camera tracks her all the live long day. The actors are lovingly bathed in Storaro's colour scheme of moonlight blues, dreamy red hues, and honeyed yellows. There are compositions that are so heart-stopping that one might willingly ignore the film's more glaring shortcomings.

Wonder Wheel

Directed by: Woody Allen

Written by: Woody Allen

Starring: Kate Winslet, Justin Timberlake, Jim Belushi, Juno Temple, Max Casella, Jack Gore, David Krumholtz