Wonder Wheel

These days, even the college-educated don't recognize the classics. Spike Lee can film LYSISTRATA, but so long as he moves it to Chicago and calls it CHI-RAQ, no one makes the connection. Instead, they complain that he is slandering Chicago. Well, no doubt, that's what the municipal authorities said about Aristophanes at the time. In this movie, Juno Temple flees from her mobster husband to take refuge with her alcoholic father, James Belushi, and step-mother, Kate Winslett and her pyromaniac son from her first marriage; they've got marginal jobs. The story is told from the viewpoint of Justin Timberlake, who spent the war in the navy. Now he's a lifeguard, studying to be a playwright, conducting an affair with Miss Winslett and falling in love with Miss Temple.

Woody Allen's script makes several references to Eugene O'Neill, and were they living on Nantucket and complaining about how their lives were ruined because the father had made too much money playing the Count of Monte Cristo to attend to his art, everyone would recognize this as LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT. However, Mr. Allen has set it in the neighborhood he grew up in and made the fact that they're so broke they're living in a bankrupt freak show house an important plot point, so this will either be overlooked or seen as blasphemy.

This is one of Mr. Allen's serious movies. I join the general population in not being as fond of those as the ones that make me laugh out loud. Yet I take a good deal of pleasure in his recreation of 1950s Coney Island (although his "Greenwich Village hovel" is remarkably clean for the era) and his clear-eyed vision of a world, now vanished, that existed more surely than the one I live in now sometimes seems to.

This is a fresh and brilliant story. I liked all the characters. Kate Winslet gives a brilliant performance as the story's main character. Wonderful film.

I liked it. Its not a perfect film but surely not as bad as many people make it out to be. And i judge the art of the artist and not the artist himself. Its a strong drama which just like Woody Allen's "Blue Jasmine" centers around a woman who is trapped in an unhappy life and on the verge of a breakdown. Kate Winslet plays that woman wonderfully and gives one of her strongest performances in ages. Her voice, her expressions, everything was top notch and what the character needed. A very interesting turn. Jim Belushi also gives a very strong performance with many different facettes, its hard not to like him even though he is unlikeable in many ways. For Belushi it is new theretory as he is rather used to funny roles, while this one was rather a serious attempt. Juno Temple was fine but did not do anything outstanding. Justin Timberlake is the weak link of the film. Totally miscast. I really did not buy his performance at all. Him and the ending, which left too many open questions and strings, were the weaker parts of the film.Also some of the lighting was a bit off or even over the top. It surely is not Woody Allen's strongest film but one of his better of the decade. The whole look and feel of Corny Island of the 50s was pitch perfect as well.

Kate Winslet gifts us with another extraordinary creation. She gives the Wonder Wheel its heart and soul. Complex, contradictory, infuriating and deeply human. Kate Winslet goes to the epicenter of her character with fearlessness and honesty. Such a wonderful thing to see. I was reminded that acting , this kind of acting, is pure art. There are at least four moments of hers that I know that I'm going to see again and again. I'm not going to to tell you what they are so you can find them yourself without notice. I was puzzled and a bit put off by the casting of Jim Belushi and Justin Timberlake. Not that they are bad no but Kate Winslet is the personification of truth so when you cut from her to Belushi and/or Timberlake is a bit of a jolt. Am I missing something? I thought that in the 40's it could have been, Bette Davis, Eugene Pallette as the husband and Errol Flynn as the writer/lifeguard. Okay enough of that. I will highly recommend to all lovers of great acting not to miss Kate Winslet in Wonder Wheel..

WONDER WHEEL iss a big surprise. After reading several sour reviews, I wasn't expecting much but Kate Winslet is terrific, the story is quite good, and the look of the film (luscious cinematography by Vittorio Storaro and production design by the always underrated Santo Loquasto) is fascinating.

Story has Winslet unhappily married (to Jim Belushi) and working in a clam house on Coney Island in the 1950s. She meets a lifeguard (Justin Timberlake) and embarks on a doomed love affair with him just as Belushi's daughter (Juno Temple) from a previous marriage returns after her marriage to a gangster has failed. It's sort of a Blanche du Bois meets Eugene O'Neill plot with a twist of the Sopranos.

Everyone is good but Winslet certainly steals the show. The 1950s Coney Island is something to see, and Winslet's house, practically under the giant Wonder Wheel, is awash is garish lights from the ride. Scenes move from orange to blue to red hues. Quite fascinating. Oh, and Winslet has a strange son from a previous marriage. For me this is Allen's best since BLUE JASMINE.

It's such a treat to see good actors actually getting to act in long, uncut scenes and without the camera whipping around and edited into 10-second info-bytes. The soundtrack includes a terrific number by the Mills Brothers I don't think I've ever heard before: "Coney Island Washboard."

Kate Winslet is outstanding, Jim Belushi and Juno Temple are very good, and Justin Timberlake is better than I expected. Great film from a great American filmmaker: Woody Allen.