Film Review: "Wonder Wheel"

Kate Winslet, Justin Timberlake, Juno Temple and Jim Belushi star in Woody Allen's new drama, Wonder Wheel. The film takes place in 1950s Coney Island and centers around Ginny (Winslet), a waitress that is unhappily married to Humpty, a carousel operator (Belushi). When Ginny falls for a young lifeguard (Timberlake), she begins to find happiness again. When Humpty's estranged daughter shows up and also vies for Mickey's attention, however, Ginny's life begins to unravel.

At this moment, I'd like to point out that I've never seen a Woody Allen movie that I actually liked. Movies like Annie Hall, Sleepers and Play It Again, Sam are, in my opinion, absolutely dreadful. Needless to say that going into Wonder Wheel, my expectations were about as low as they possibly could have been. For the most part, I was correct in expecting a dull film, but that's not to say that there weren't any redeemable qualities in it.

The best part about Wonder Wheel is that it has some very strong performances, with Kate Winslet standing out high above her co-stars. Her character has this sort of slow descent into madness that Winslet is able to portray wonderfully. Jim Belushi is also surprisingly good and gives depth to a character that could have easily been very one-dimensional. Some of the other characters had some serious issues, however. I think Justin Timberlake was seriously miscast for this role. At no point in this film did I actually believe he was the character he was trying to be. There is also a storyline with Ginny's pyromaniacal son, Richie, that is completely pointless and didn't need to be there at all.

Visually speaking, this film also uses its setting very well. Having 1950s Coney Island as the backdrop for this story provides a wonderful array of colors and lights that make this a gorgeous movie to look at. What's frustrating about this is that Wonder Wheel fails to use this vibrant setting to enhance the actual story. In a movie that deals so much with love and romance, you should take full advantage of these amazing visuals that are available to you. Yet for whatever reasons, all of these love scenes take place while tucked away in the dark. You would never imagine that a movie that looks so warm and full of life would actually turn out as dull and boring as this movie was.
           As a whole, Wonder Wheel is not a good film. At times it feels like a play and at times it feels like a movie, but it never seems to figure out which one it actually wants to be. None of the characters are actually likable or easy to root for. This isn't a film that I could really recommend anyone to see. As far as scores go, I'd put this at around 30%.