This one just missed the TOP 10 for 2017, if it hadn’t, it would have ranked highly. The future will tell how it holds till November 2018. Bellow the biggest piece of MacMahonian revisionism so far: Wonder Wheel.
Wonder Wheel is the 48th feature film directed by Woody Allen, about whom The MacMahonian's verdict, a propos his previous Cafe Society (these pages October 29 last year, btw feature number in that entry was incorrect and is above corrected) reads, whilst sustained, in retrospect harsh.
Wonder Wheel, like many a Woody Allen film, tells a variation of many if not most of his films: this time set in 50s Coney Island, Balzacian Ginny (Kate Winslet, apotheotic, more on which below) is stuck in a dead end second marriage with carrousel manager Humpty (Jim Belushi, up to the task) and a dead end job in a seafood restaurant. One day, Humpty's estranged daughter Carolina (Juno Temple, OK) comes back home to escape a problematic marriage with a Mafioso (she sang to the feds and is now a marked woman, and Humpty's place is the last place she thinks her ex's cronies will come and look). Having struck once, Fate strikes twice in the guise of lifeguard Mickey Rubin (Justin Timberlake, perfect) who is involved in an affair with Ginny but takes a shine to Carolina, with predictable consequences which won't be disclosed so as not to spoil the film to those who haven’t seen it although the next paragraph will leave little doubt as to what comes to pass.
Everything I wrote about Café Society applies to Wonder Wheel, but in a good way. Like most filmmakers, Allen almost always makes the same movie, in his case love triangle leading to betrayal leading to disillusionment as a metaphor for life's compromises, with heavy hints of American Tragedy and Crime and Punishment, down to the obvious metaphor if the title. Wonder Wheel doesn’t wear metaphor subtly, nor does it need to. Plot and dialogue (also by Allen) clockwork perfect, Russian-Jewish heart firmly in sleeve, Allen portrays through a completely codified drama structure the clash between ethics and instinct, the victory of the latter and the inevitable outcome: not so much punishment as failure and bemusement, as life goes on, illustrated as epilogue by pyromaniac Ginny son from first marriage Richie (Jack Gore) who somewhat incongruously for 50s working class Coney Island is undergoing psychotherapy, (until he decides to light a fire in the analyst's waiting room).
It took Woody Allen almost 40 years to graduate from the embarrassing antics of Interiors (1978) to get here. Wonder Wheel is probably the best Allen film ever (Id have to revisit The Roses to make sure). And Kate Winslet, who does most of the film's heavy lifting in an overall impressive cast, delivers a Madame Bovary of the 20th Century for the 21st.