Wonder Wheel

Starring: Kate Winslet, Justin Timberlake, Juno Temple, Jim Belushi, Jack Gore, Tony Sirico, David Krumholtz
Directed by: Woody Allen
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Drama
2017

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A woman (Kate Winslet) living at Coney Island struggles with her husband (Jim Belushi), her lover (Justin Timberlake), and her husband's daughter (Juno Temple), who shows up unannounced.

Review:

Tim: I've never been a huge Woody Allen fan, although I acknowledge he's had his fair share of successful movies. It's hard not to feel like he's way, way past his prime, though. His latest film, Wonder Wheel is okay, I suppose. There's nothing terrible about the film, although there's not a whole lot to like, either. It's mildly entertaining, although it's very difficult to feel anything for its characters. The movie as a whole is surprisingly forgettable. It doesn't make much of an impact at all.

Woody Allen wrote the film, too, so he's mostly to blame here. The main character of the film is played by Kate Winslet. She gives a solid performance, but she really isn't given much in terms of the script. I fail to see why anyone would care deeply about this character. She's not very smart, she's selfish, and she makes poor choices. This could be forgiven if she was especially interesting, but that's not true about her. Winslet is good in the role, but the character is just unlikable. It was interesting to see Jim Belushi cast here. The part felt like it was slightly above his pay grade as an actor. He's decent for the most part, but I just had a hard time understanding why he was cast. I didn't have any major faults with him, but he's obviously not a very good actor. Justin Timberlake was harder to pin down. I've enjoyed him in films before, but there was something off here. His character had some likable qualities, but his dialogue felt forced. I know he's a writer and a dreamer, but it just didn't come across as especially authentic. It felt too polished, his character didn't feel lived in enough. Some of that is Timberlake, much of it is Allen's direction. The most shocking aspect of the cast is that I actually enjoyed Juno Temple here. I've seen a bunch of Temple's movies, but I honestly couldn't name a single one or remember anything specific about her performances (Truly- this is the 9th movie of Temple's I've seen and I couldn't remember anything about her in any of those movies). She's made no impact on me whenever I've seen her. And yet, here, she works. I don't know if I'll ever say that again, but Temple really worked well here.

The story is surprisingly bland. Allen sets up the story- you have Winslet, who's married to Belushi, but cheating on him with Timberlake. Belushi's daughter Temple shows up and Timberlake falls in love with her. She's also on the run from her ex-husband and the mobsters he runs with. It sounds like a Woody Allen movie, but none of it felt very important. There's a subplot about Belushi's arson-driven son (which didn't feel compelling at all). I don't know, I just didn't like or care about any of these characters. Watching the film wasn't torture, but I sure didn't derive much pleasure out of it, either. There wasn't anything noteworthy about it. It didn't feel like Allen showed up without effort. It felt like this was all he had left in him. A director at his stage in their career needs to do better than this. It didn't feel like he'd learned much from his long career. It felt like he showed up and did what he knew, without trying to push himself especially hard. I don't know, it's not a bad movie, it's just completely average.

I've been about a 50-50 split on the Woody Allen movies I've seen. I liked slightly less than half of them. Unfortunately, this movie further moves that in the wrong direction. I acknowledge there's not really anything wrong with Wonder Wheel, it's just that there's not much really right with it, either.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Blue Jasmine, Midnight in Paris