Justin Timberlake in Wonder Wheel: NYFF’s Closing Night

In Wonder Wheel, Woody Allen’s latest movie, Justin Timberlake narrates this tale as Mickey, a drama student at NYU and lifeguard at Bay 7 in Coney Island. A cute guy, and a gentleman, he’s into romance, and falls in love with two women: first, a would-be actress, now a waitress at Ruby’s Clam House, Ginny (Kate Winslet) is older than Mickey and married to a recovering drinker (Jim Belushi), who runs a merry-go-round. They live in the shadow of the Wonder Wheel, with Ginny’s son Richie (Jack Gore) from her first marriage, a nice boy in the habit of setting fires. The second is Carolina (Juno Temple), ex-wife of a mobster and Humpty’s daughter, and just the right age for Mickey, except that she is marked; two thugs from the world of the Sopranos loom large in a black car (Tony Sirico and Steve Schirripa), look to take her out. That’s the set up for Woody’s familiar tropes on tragedy shot on the stunning tuttifruiti boardwalk and sand by the great Vittorio Storaro.

Mickey gives each of these women a gift, a book. For Ginny’s birthday, it’s a play collection of Eugene O’Neill. And for Carolina, it’s Ernest Jones’ Hamlet and Oedipus. At the New York Film Festival’s closing night party at Tavern on the Green, Justin Timberlake held court at a central table. He said he took just two mementos from the film, a lifeguard tank top, and the Jones paperback, an esoteric read, a psychoanalytic view of the resonant connection between Shakespearean and Sophoclean ideas of fate and the tragic hero. Timberlake’s wife Jessica Biel sat nearby, speaking about her role in a series, “The Sinner”.

55th New York Film Festival, “Wonder Wheel” premiere +22 images

A tragicomedy in the tradition of Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine, — Cate Blanchett won a Best Actress Oscar for her role, Wonder Wheel has Oscar buzz for Kate Winslet’s powerhouse performance.

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