Wonder Wheel

Pulled between two men – Humpty the fisherman (Jim Belushi), the one she’s married to, and Mickey the lifeguard (Justin Timberlake) who she’s having an affair with – Ginny (Kate Winslet) is far from satisfied, facing her fortieth birthday with a pyromaniacal kid fascinated by the movies and the drudgery of waitressing at Coney Island. When Carolina (Juno Temple), Humpty’s grown up daughter arrives looking to her estranged father for shelter since she’s on the run from her mobster husband, Ginny’s suppressed anger surfaces in this Woody Allen film set in the early 1950s. Oddly, though, I recognized the setup as a reflection (if not outright theft) of the Fritz Lang film Clash By Night where Barbara Stanwyck was cheating on her fisherman husband with a psychotic projectionist at the local theater until he notices Marilyn Monroe! It’s that romantic triangle – multiplied – that serves as the basis for Allen’s film, too.

[PG-13]