MPAA (PG-13) CNS/USCCB () RogerEbert.com (1 1/2 Stars) AVClub (C-) Fr. Dennis (3 1/2 Stars)
IMDb
listing
CNS/USCCB () review
Los Angeles Times (K. Turan)
review
RogerEbert.com (G. Kenny)
review
AVClub (A.A. Dowd)
review
Wonder Wheel [2017] (written and directed by
Woody Allen), let's be honest, is a quite awkward film to view / review as our nation is going through what could become a sea-change in attitudes toward sexual harrassment / abuse in the workplace, beginning, in fact, in the movie industry.
It's not that _anything_ in
Allen's current film directly touches that topic. However two going on three decades ago,
Allen (1) abruptly ended his then marriage to actress Mia Farrow, and proceeded to marry his then 17 year old (!) step daughter (the two have stayed together ever since) and (2) has since been accused of having concurrently abused another, even younger, and here biological daughter, Dylan, an accusation that he's always denied. With his last several films dealing with "gettting away" / "not getting away" with unspeakable crimes, this one included, it would seem that the question of "getting away with [something]" weighs _significantly_ on his mind (and perhaps conscience...).
Indeed, I would submit that a good part of the reason why this film hasn't been particularly well received (see the reviews cited above) has much less to do with the technical quality of the film -- IMHO, excellent, written in the style of a play by
Tennessee Williams or
Eugene O'Neill -- but rather on the person of
Woody Allen himself and the moment in history that we're living in.
And let's be clear, it is a _good moment_. At least a few prominent serial harassers / abusers of women have had to step down from their positions of previous honor. And probably, evoking with some caution one of the more lasting images of the
French Revolution... more "heads will roll" in the future. There's a real chance that in the next generation women will be in a far more equal position vis-a-vis men than before.
And yet, I would submit that the case of someone like
Woody Allen (far more than someone like
Harvey Weinstein ...) ought to indicate to us to be careful (that justice be attained by the lifting up of past victims to their proper places rather than simply destroying past sinners). For despite his sins / failings,
Woody Allen is clearly a talented person. He's given this world far more than just his sins.
Harvey Weinstein has also probably given the world more than just his sins (as would be the case for all of us). But
Woody Allen becomes something of a poster child of the reality that WE ARE ALL _more_ than _simply our sins / failings_.
This is something actually that the Catholic Church, DESPITE ITS OWN SINS, has also ALWAYS UNDERSTOOD AND PROCLAIMED: In a world that first denies even the existence of Sin, but then _also_ denies in all but _very rare cases_ even the possibility of Forgiveness (and then not at all based on merit, but generally simply based on power), the CHURCH PROCLAIMS BOTH: (1) that Sin clearly exists, but (2) that Jesus Christ came here _precisely_ to forgive us and lift us out of that Sin. And I submit, the combination is THE ONLY WAY to look _realistically_ at our world. For we can (and still may) universally destroy ourselves (rather than bring ourselves to forgive ...). But the reality is that all of us are _more_ than just "what we've done wrong."
Some kind of "
Truth and Reconciliation" (to borrow the approach taken by post-Apartheid South Africa) is needed balance the twin Realities of past Injustice / Crime and the need for people, _most people_ to add _constructively_ to society for the Common Good. If we eliminate _everyone_ who has ever sinned, as the Psalmist asks:
Who could survive? [Psalm 130:3]
Anyway, _not diminishing at all_ the reality of Sin, we have to acknowledge that even Sinners (all of us) are capable of contributing ... (and again, I do see
Woody Allen as something of a "poster child" for this). For despite whatever he may have done, the world has benefited from his existence, and again, the world has benefited from _our existence(s)_ as well).
To the movie ... ;-)
Set in the early 1950s, in
Coney Island, NY, and narrated by "Mickey" (played wonderfully by
Justin Timberlake) a "
South Pacific" WW II vet (former sailor) now lifeguard / night school student studying to be playwright now living in
Greenwich Village (hence something of a cross of Kowalski from
A Streetcar Named Desire and
Jack Kerouac), the film's about a family which lives literally under the amusement park's Ferris (Wonder) Wheel (Note that by "self-told legend" during his stand-up comedy days, that's where
Woody Allen would say that he grew-up -- "under the Farris Wheel in Coney Island" -- as well ;-).
The man of the house was a late-40s/early-50s widower / carnival ride operator named Humpty (played wonderfully in "Ralph Kramden of the
Honeymooners"-style by
Jim Belushi) who was married to a 40-something once, long-ago, aspiring actress, once married to a musician, now divorced (by her own, admitted, damned fault) waitress at the local clam shop named Ginny (played again wonderfully by
Kate Winslet evoking a combination of an older Margaret / "Maggie the Cat" from
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and perhaps even more Blanche from
A Streetcar Named Desire).
Both had children from their previous marriages: He had a 20-something daughter, a "Femme Fatale" if you'd ever seen one named Carolina (played again spot-on by
Juno Temple) who "came home" at the beginning of the story after a disastrous five-year marriage to a mobster, now in jail, and with his cohorts "looking for her" because, under pressure, she apparently "squealed to the Feds." Ginny had a 10 year old "young Woody Allenesque" son named Richie (played by
Jack Gore) with a penchant of "burning things down" ... yes, literally; he was a pyromaniac.
After setting-up the story, we're told by Mickie in "Act 2" that he and Ginny were having an affair; he because well, as a former sailor, now starting-out playwright, found Ginny, the 40-something once, long-ago, actress, once married to a musician, now random 40-something waitress in a Coney Island clam-shop, well, honestly _fascinating_ ;-), and she because "he saw the world" (the
South Pacific, including
Bora Bora, near
Tahiti, where French impressionist artist
Paul Gauguin escaped to from a suffocating marriage...) and because he, like her first husband, the musician, was _interesting_ which her current one, albeit with at times (when not drinking...) a heart of gold, was not...
In Act 3, however, Mickie meets Carolina, and ... the rest of the story unspools from there...
I found the story, honestly, excellent. If the dialogue was _at times_ stilted, it was _largely done in the style of the plays of the time_. Honestly,
Tennessee Williams was stilted in his dialogue as well. That was the writing of that time...
And this then is the paradox of
Woody Allen. Certainly flawed (as are we all) in someway, and _perhaps_ profoundly, he remains oustandingly talented. Should he, in as much as he sinned (as we have all), pay for his sins? Certainly, but at the end of the day, it can not be denied that he's contributed (a lot) to this world as well (as do we all as well).
So, can we find a way to both "Tell the Truth" and yet also "bring everybody back" despite their Sins?
Excellent / thought provoking film / context.
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