Wonder Wheel (2017)

Despite its glorious Vittorio Storaro cinematography and a stalwart job by Kate Winslet as a neurotic waitress in 1950s Coney Island, Woody Allen's pacing dragged at times. Jack and I are predisposed to like his work, while not celebrating him as a human being. More on that in a moment.

Winslet (last blogged for The Dressmaker) as Ginny, in her first Allen outing, nails the fast-talking unhinged heroine we've come to expect from the director/writer, and Jim Belushi (his many credits include 33 episodes of Saturday Night Live (1983-1985), Little Shop of Horrors (1986), About Last Night... (1986), cameo in The Ghost Writer, and six episodes of Good Girls Revolt as national editor Wick McFadden) does the same as her schlemiel of a husband, nicknamed Humpty. Weaker links are Justin Timberlake (most recently in Inside Llewyn Davis) as handsome lifeguard Mickey and Juno Temple (covered in Killer Joe) as Humpty's daughter Carolina.

As I said, we have both tended to like Allen's work. He makes a new movie every year--2016's was Café Society. Hollywood's society is in upheaval now, as people of both genders are accusing sexual transgressors, causing careers to crumble. And this current climate has inspired me to look a little more deeply into Allen, who is, as Jack quipped, an early adopter of sexual misconduct. Allen's adopted daughter Dylan Farrow's essay accusing him of molesting her in 1993 when she was 7 was published by Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Nicholas Kristof in his blog on 2/1/14. To be honest, I did hear in the 1990s about Mia Farrow's bringing a custody suit against him on that basis, but I wasn't convinced he was guilty and did not boycott his movies, which I had always loved (my regular readers may remember that I have grudgingly praised the work of Mel Gibson even though he's been definitively outed as an anti-Semite and accused of partner assault). This week I read a rebuttal Allen wrote for the New York Times opinion section on 2/7/14, as well as Maureen Orth's Vanity Fair article, also published on 2/7/14. And then I read an article from last year by Dylan's brother, journalist Ronan Farrow, who is Allen's biological son, originally named Satchel Ronan O'Sullivan Farrow for baseball great Satchel Paige and Mia's mother Maureen O'Sullivan. I am most definitely a feminist and fully understand how difficult it is for victims to come forward. All that being said, I am also a lover of the art of filmmaking and don't do much boycotting. It should be noted that I commented in 2010, in a post about You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, that I didn't approve of Allen's incestuous choice of mate (his stepdaughter and current wife Soon-Yi Previn, 35 years his junior).

On to lighter topics. Storaro (covered in Café Society) bathes Winslet's dyed-orange hair in orange light to wonderful effect (here are examples one and two) and, along with production designer Santo Loquasto, could be eligible for an award or two if Allen's notoriety doesn't get in the way.

No composer, just songs, as usual. Most sites mention Jo Stafford's You Belong to Me from 1952 as the theme song here but to my mind it's The Mills Brothers' Coney Island Washboard Roundelay that I'm still singing to myself.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences have excoriated this picture, averaging 30 and 48%, respectively. Don't confuse this with three other "wonder" movies from this fall: Wonder, Wonderstruck, Wonder Woman, and Professor Marston and the Wonder Women. Wait to see it on free cable and look at the beautiful images.

The Ghost Writer (2010)

From the Hitchcock-inspired music at the opening to the big finish, this is a powerful and entertaining thriller from co-writer/director Roman Polanski, composer Alexandre Desplat, and stars Ewan MacGregor, Pierce Brosnan, and Olivia Wilde. Polanski is both hated for his 1977 criminal record and revered for his filmmaking brilliance (won an Oscar for The Pianist (2002), nominated for Rosemary's Baby (1969), Chinatown (1974), and Tess (1979), I also liked Frantic (1988)), and then there are those of us who feel both emotions (as I do for Woody Allen). The inability of Brosnan's character, former Prime Minister Adam Lang, to return home due to his legal problems is an obvious reference to Polanski's plight, but it is taken directly from the novel, The Ghost (which is a thinly veiled stab at ex-Prime Minister Tony Blair), by co-screenwriter Robert Harris. MacGregor (about whom I wrote a bit in The Men Who Stare at Goats) as "The Ghost," turns in one of his best performances, and Pierce Brosnan, who, I'm sure, would like to forget Mamma Mia just as much as I would, gives us a thoroughly nuanced Lang (I really liked him in The Matador (2005) and Married Life (2007), both twisted tales, as well as his 007 (1995, 97, 99, 2002) and Mrs. Doubtfire (1993) roles). Olivia Williams (the virginal Miss Stubbs in An Education) is terrific as the cranky Mrs. Lang. I was surprised to read that Kim Cattrall (not just Sex and the City (TV 1998-2004 and film 2008 and later this year) but also I liked The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990) and Mannequin (1987), though her resume is quite long) had studied in England, because her English accent seemed to fade in and out, as did Tom Wilkinson's (see what I wrote in Duplicity, and remember he worked with MacGregor on Cassandra's Dream in 2007) American one. The cameos by Jim Belushi, with a shaved head, and Eli Wallach (he's 94 and has 161 acting credits on imdb) were great, too.

Desplat's music never lets up and I'm listening to the soundtrack as I write. You should listen to the clip from the link in my first sentence. I have enjoyed all of his work and also own the scores to The Painted Veil (2006), Fantastic Mr. Fox, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. The bunker, er, house, supposedly on Martha's Vineyard, in which the characters were holed up, was outstanding, but the exteriors were shot on the German island of Sylt, as Polanski would be arrested were he to set foot on American soil at this time, and the interiors were all sets.

Jack and I highly recommend this movie.