Woody Allen is stuck in the past
Wonder Wheel
12A cert, 101 min
★★★★★
Dir Woody Allen Starring Kate Winslet, Justin Timberlake, Juno Temple, James Belushi, David Krumholtz, Tony Sirico
Kate Winslet as a miserable American housewife in the Fifties? We’ve been here before, down Revolutionary Road and back, a decade ago. The differences in Wonder Wheel are quite pronounced. Her wardrobe isn’t post-war chic but dress-up-box Coney Island waitress; her hair is auburn; and her director is Woody Allen, which presents a litany of problems right out of the gate. Can we ignore these? No, because the film sets about passive-aggressively reminding us of them. It isn’t Allen escaping into the past so much as defensively dredging it up, script-wise. And although he’s hired another world-class cinematographer, Vittorio Storaro, the film’s look is pushy and unattractive, as if it’s wearing too much lipstick.
I wish I could say that Winslet’s Ginny deserved better, but Allen has decided that she’s her own worst enemy. Winslet seems to be fighting a war against Allen’s direction, and everything goes to pot.