Skip to main content

Film Review: "Wonder Wheel"

Related image
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%.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Classic Movie Monday: John Carpenter's "Halloween" vs Rob Zombie's "Halloween"

            We live in an era where remakes and sequels of beloved films are constantly coming out. Every once in a while, a classic or a highly popular film gets remade and it turns out so bad that people claim it “ruined the original”. One such case is Rob Zombie’s remake of John Carpenter’s 1978 horror classic, Halloween. The purpose of this article is twofold. As always, I want to encourage readers to watch a classic film. With this article, however, I also want to try and dispel this notion that bad remakes/sequels ruin the original film.              John Carpenter’s original is widely considered to be a masterpiece and one of the founders of the slasher sub-genre. The story is a relatively simple one. It starts off in Haddonfield, Illinois in 1963 on Halloween night where a 6-year-old Michael Myers kills his older sister shortly after she has finished having ...

Five Things from the Film Industry I'm Thankful For this Thanksgiving

 1. Pixar's Coco I can't overstate how much this film meant to me. To finally be able to see my culture being represented on the big screen in an accurate and loving way was overwhelming in the best way possible. I've seen this film twice now and both times I was overcome with a sense of pride at seeing a film being able to perfectly capture the essence of Mexican culture. Every single aspect of this film, from the behaviors to the music, was treated with dignity and respect. I didn't realize how much this film would affect me, but I'm thankful that Coco was made and that it is getting the amount of love that it is. In my eyes, this is the best Pixar film ever made. 2. Horror is Killing it This Year Horror has always been my favorite genre in film and to see how hugely successful horror movies were this year has been awesome. Films like It and Get Out made huge amounts of money, but more importantly, they were excellent films that people wanted to see over a...

Film Review: Marvel's "Ant-Man"

Image via Forbes.com It would be a lie to sit here and pretend like I have been an Ant-Man fan my entire life. The truth is that I didn't bother learning much about him until a few years ago. You see, in 2012's San Diego Comic Con, Marvel showed a one-minute long video which turned out to be the test footage for this film. There was no dialogue nor any sort of story to it, but that didn't matter because what we saw was unlike anything we had seen before. My interest in this unknown superhero was sparked that night and while many people mocked this film leading up its release, I kept telling people that this movie was going to surprise everyone. What I saw in that footage was so much potential, and then adding the incredible cast elevated my enthusiasm even more. But now that I have seen the movie, I have to say that even I was surprised by the final product, and I couldn't be more thrilled about it. ***WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD*** Ant-Man  opens up with some ...