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Undescribable Perfection

It is a performances centric movie

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

The stylisms of this movie are clear; the lighting the limited sets. It is like a theatre play, which of course is the whole point. Theatre itself is an important theme in this movie, hence why three of the four characters (everyone else is window dressing) are actors or writers.Yet the power of the characterisations and acting helps communicate the complexities of emotion, despite all its surface level appearances. It seems like any other Woody Allen movie, when Timberlake's character talks to the camera, and we assume everything will be light and comedic and there will be some adulterous hi jinx, which there is, but underneath the shiny surface are a couple of deeply frustrated artists, two characters with such shifting and complex emotions. Of course, Winslet's character has the limelight, and the complexity there... well, when the final act swings in, Timberlake is no longer talking to the camera and it reaches a different plain. Is it a plot twist (albeit an expected one) for the sake of it, or is the bored housewife desperate to be in a true drama (dressed all up in her Shakespearian costume), and thus creates one.

Stops without ending, thereby negating some excellent performances. Plot was good 'till they couldn't figure away to close.

This release could have been a success for someone else, but in terms of Woody Allen's art, it is nothing short of a failure. What could have been a fascinating and intriguing story turned out into 90 minutes of yelling and screaming, restlessly delivered by Kate Winslet (Ginny). The annoyance created by her overacting and overreacting is so powerful and negative that it precludes from appreciating the solid performance delivered by Jim Belushi (Humpty). I love dialogues in Woody Allen movies for their sophistication and humor, but this times the dialogues were monotonous and hopelessly shallow. Lastly, the movie has no ending. It looks like someone just cut off the finale, making me feel as if the box office attendant just shut down the window in front of me after I have waited in a long line for along time.

In true fashion for Woody Allen, this story follows his passion for melodramatic stories, as a Coney Island Lifeguard (Justin Timberlake) tells the tale of his love affair with a woman many years his senior (Kate Winslet) and the visitor who turns their lives upside down.This is by all accounts a Woody Allen film, layered with the narrating guide, complex characters, love affairs, nostalgic vision and melodrama - Allen is back at it again with his usual form, but it's certainly no Manhattan or Blue Jasmine. The nostalgic tone in which Allen tells this tale is wonderfully sweeping, the characters are fittingly complex but there is a lack of care given to the story. Evidently, the desired effect is a swooning melodrama but what disturbs this is the stilted and neck jerking dialogue. The witty, sharp and echoing notes from the likes of Annie Hall are all but forgotten, the dialogue is wooden, clunky and artificial, it all but puts the brakes on every performance in the film and the drama itself.Performances neither fall flat or excel and only a few are even believable as people rather than characters, as they sound overplayed and over-written. Emotionally Wonder Wheel works for the most part but the characters feel forced, through the overwritten development of their stories and a side plot that never capitalizes on its own tension and barely begs interest, Wonder Wheel misses its melodramatic mark. The love affairs and jealousy can only hold interest for wavering periods and the fantastical setting of Coney Island barely warrants a footnote, Allen vastly underuses the setting of Coney Island as a backdrop but he does stage scenes with the same precision that is expected of him. Winslet also gives her all to her part, it gives her character and much of the story its honest and engrossing appeal and overshadows her co-stars, Temple never gets a moment in the limelight, Timberlake figuratively never leaves the water and Belushi is an overcooked caricature.Wonder Wheel is however, surprisingly stylish, with enticing cinematography and a dapper soundtrack to boot. Allen's nostalgia-driven vision for this piece shines in this regard, there is an old-world style of beauty about it, even incorporating older techniques of lighting as well as camera work, bringing to the forefront that this is a movie that was made, a way of filmmaking that is somewhat lost today in favor of all-encompassing plainness.Wonder Wheel is an echo of Woody Allen's filmmaking, it's stylishly sharp, enticing and sweeping with a nostalgic flair that adds delight to the picture. However, the stunted and artificial dialogue pales to Allen's former work and is uncharacteristically disruptive, damaging the performances, extensive melodrama and evocative storytelling. Wonder Wheel sits dismally in Allen's impressive and vast body of work and is largely forgettable.