Now in his 80's, Woody Allen is still directing provocative films. Last night I watched
Wonder Wheel (2017) courtesy of Netflix. Set in Coney Island in the 1950's, it is the story of a family in turmoil. As is typical of an Allen work, infidelity is at the core. Kate Winslet is fantastic as a once aspiring actress now waiting tables in a Boardwalk clam bar. Restless, she begins an affair with a lifeguard-wannabe-writer, played by Justin Timberlake. At first this pulls her from the doldrums. Naturally, complications arise. Timberlake's character becomes interested in the step-daughter, played by Juno Temple, who is on the run from her mob boss husband, pursued by characters played by Tony Sirico and Steve Schirippa. Jim Belushi is outstanding as the fourth part of the rectangle, the betrayed husband who operates amusement rides. Any fan of Allen is familiar with his recurring themes. One is the belief that humans are helpless in matters of the heart, likely to make terrible choices. This is not uncommon in real life, but is it as rife as Allen seems to believe? Maybe he is simply focusing on what's more interesting, and good relationships don't provide enough fodder for compelling drama. The only flaw here is that Allen has said all this before. Timberlake plays a role that likely would have been filled by the young Allen back in the day, with minor tweaks, of course. There are echoes of the characters Allen has portrayed in Timberlake's dialogue. Like Quentin Tarantino, Allen is locked into a life view. Both create their own screenplays. I would love to see them direct the scripts of others. Panned by most critics,
Wonder Wheel did not fare well at the box office. Made on a budget of $25 million, it returned only $15 million worldwide. It got no love at Oscar time. The only universal praise it received was for Vittorio Storaro's cinematography, which is lush. I don't recall Coney Island being that beautiful and clean. There is an interesting subplot involving Winslet's character's son by a previous marriage, a budding pyromaniac in his early teens. I suppose it's symbolic. 13,000+ users at IMDb have rated
Wonder Wheel, forging to a consensus of 6.2 on a scale of ten, too low in my opinion. I wonder if any were influenced by the accusations made against Allen by Ronan Farrow, which I don't believe are true. Such behavior usually spans a lifetime, and no one else has fingered the icon. Anyway,
Wonder Wheel is in the top quarter of a canon any artist would love to claim. Here's a pic of the leads:
Day two of the heat wave seemed like it would be all toil and no reward until three of my faves showed up during the final half hour of the session. My thanks to Monsie, who purchased a CD of mood music, and to Ralph, who bought five works of non-fiction that included baseball trivia and the sayings of Confucius; and to Bad News Billy, who selected a Bible. The second quarter was a success. In terms of my own books, the deficit is down to $802, the lowest it's been since
Adjustments, my second novel, was published in 2008.
Five Cents has joined
Killing,
A Hitch in Twilight and
Rising Star in the black. When the proceeds of the entire floating book shop are factored in, I'm thousands ahead. I'm lucky.
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