"The Ferris Wheel" is yet another piece of Woody Allen's self-talk. The characters all speak in Woody Allen's voice, think in Woody Allen's way, rather they are puppets, carrying strings on the puppet stage, discussing the same things Woody Allen always talks about: passion and destiny , Dilemma and Dreams, Hysteria and Traces of Life, Conflict of Appeals, Patience and Compromise. Woody Allen especially likes the role of having a harbor in life but lacking passion until the next encounter. "Love is not gratitude, companionship, or the satisfaction of desire. When you have so much to give, you don't know who to give." This is the predicament of this class of people, and this predicament may be thousands of years old. . . Passion, on the other hand, always accompanies romanticized imagination, which arrives unexpectedly and easily fades away. Mickey discovered the beauty of Carolina in a blink of an eye, and the conflict began to evolve until the idea of harming others, or ignoring the thought of others being harmed, appeared. When it was all over, the old couple returned to the chores of life, felt they needed each other, and went on like this absurdly. Woody Allen seems to never discuss morality, it seems that morality does not leave traces in people's hearts, and the characters' moral consciousness occasionally appears but is fleeting. No matter how romanticized a person is, his heart will instinctively escape from moral dilemmas, avoid inner doubts about morality, and continue to seek freedom. But a series of escapes will still affect him profoundly in the end. It's not that good is good and evil is bad -- it's that simple -- but the moral dimension is often overlooked, so that people don't realize its impact. There is structure in the human heart. . . Woody Allen's level progression lacks surprise, lacks respect for characters (as if they really don't exist), and I feel like his struggles with his confusion don't seem to be progressing much.
View more about Wonder Wheel reviews
