Directed by: Woody Allen
Starring: Kate Winslet, Justin Timberlake, Jim Belushi, Jack Gore, Juno Temple, Tony Sirico
Wonder Wheel is among Woody Allen's lesser films. It isn't poorly made or poorly acted, but just thin with more obvious payoffs and a lack of inspiration. Allen doesn't seem to take delight in showing us these wounded people. The movie has a pall hanging over it with telegraphed tragic moments. But, with that said, the movie nearly succeeds with its soap opera intrigue. Nearly.
The movie opens in 1950s Coney Island, where the unhappily married couple of carousel operator Humpty (Belushi) and his second wife Ginny (Winslet), a former actress who now waits table at a boardwalk crab shop. She laments her past misdeeds, which led to the dissolution of her first marriage and potentially the suicide of her ex, and her current stifling situation. Her son from that marriage, Richie (Gore) is a compulsive pyromaniac who sets fires to anything, anyplace, and at any time. The family lives at a former speakeasy converted into an apartment within the endless lights and sounds of Coney Island. It is almost fitting Humpty and Ginny both are battling to stay sober in a kitchen with a built-in bar.
The opening scenes are narrated by Mickey (Timberlake), a lifeguard and aspiring writer with a love of the dramatic. At first, he seems like a bystander, but we soon learn he is having an affair with Ginny, who feels alive for the first time in years when she is with him. Things go on without disruption, until disruption arrives in the form of Carolina (Temple), Humpty's estranged daughter from his first marriage, on the run from her gangster ex. She talked to the feds about her husband's business and for her troubles now has two hitmen looking for her. She pleads with the reluctant Humpty to stay with him. After a good deal of fist-pounding and empty tirades, Humpty relents and Carolina soon gets a job at the same crab shop as Ginny.
So far, so good, until Mickey meets Carolina and falls for her while seeing Ginny. Ginny wants to leave Humpty and follow her irrational romantic fantasies by running away with Mickey. Mickey likes Ginny to be sure, but isn't in the mood to be tied down when Carolina is still available. You can see where all of this is heading and Allen doesn't disappoint. Ginny is soon "consumed with jealousy", as she tells Mickey in case we didn't catch on, and makes tragic choices which affect everyone involved, except Richie who just wants to find the next thing to burn.
This material would be close to a guilty pleasure if it didn't take itself so seriously. Wonder Wheel isn't boring, but it feels like Allen on holiday. This sort of drama never rises above Days of Our Lives depth and the actors lend it much more weight than it deserves. Winslet is very good here. Not only is she appropriately vulnerable and succumbing to severe internal emotional pressure, but we actually care for her much more than we should. Timberlake is sufficiently caddish, deceiving himself by almost romanticizing all of this as a somehow real life Eugene O'Neill. He is more in love with the drama than he is either of the women. But, let's not forget Belushi, whose Humpty is loud, insecure, alcoholic and has the most depth of any of the characters. Like his name suggests, he is waiting for a big fall even if he isn't aware of it, and arises as the most sympathetic person in the film.
Many reviews have focused on the real life parallels between Allen's private life with Mia Farrow and now-wife Soon Yi Previn and the relationships in this film. If so, he did so more effectively and with more relevance in Husbands and Wives (1992), which starred Allen and Farrow with a subplot in which Allen falls for a much younger coed. Some of his films revisit previous themes such as the perfect murder, jealousy, and betrayal, this is not uncommon for Allen. This is the first time, though, where I felt like we have been there and done that.
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