Wonder Wheel

Dir: Woody Allen 1hr 41mins (12A)

Is time up for Woody Allen?

With a talented cast and gorgeous photography by Vittorio Storaro, the latest comedy drama from Woody Allen has everything – except, perhaps, “a pressing reason for being”, said Tom Shone in The Sunday Times. The film is set in New York’s decaying Coney Island resort in the 1950s. Kate Winslet plays Ginny, an unhappily married waitress whose eye is caught by a handsome lifeguard with literary ambitions (Justin Timberlake). But the arrival of her winsome stepdaughter (Juno Temple), who’s on the run from gangsters, complicates matters – as she too takes a fancy to the lifeguard. The story is acted with “robust dinner-theatre conviction”, particularly by Winslet, said Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian. But alas, the plot has “all the depth” of the resort’s “painted hoardings”. With actors now “queueing up to distance themselves from Allen” in response to resurgent allegations about his private life, it’s harder than ever for the film-maker to keep his career afloat, said Raphael Abraham in the Financial Times. Tepid fare like Wonder Wheel certainly won’t do much to help.