Best known for writing High Fidelity and directing the Hot Tub Time Machine movies, Steve Pink‘s latest directorial venture The Wheel has him zeroing in on a young couple and their messy, crumbling marriage. Starring Amber Midthunder (Legion) and Taylor Gray (Star Wars Rebels) as Albee and Walker, The Wheel is a drama brimming with vulnerability and serrated wounds that, if anything, hammers home the importance of communication in a healthy relationship, no matter how precarious the outcome or how cruel the exchange may be.
From the moment the movie begins, there’s nothing but a radiating tension as Albee and Walker make their way to an Airbnb cabin in rural California for a weekend getaway — one final attempt to save their marriage. Albee is cold and surly while Walker is amiable and clearly the instigator for trying to make things work, but thanks to writer Trent Atkinson‘s skillful dialogue, there’s more to these two than their small, venomous fights and their even smaller moments of elation and peace.
The Spectre Of Marriage
While a very contained film, The Wheel works well thanks to the dynamic thrown in by Albee and Walker’s cabin hosts Ben (Nelson Lee) and Carly (Bethany Anne Lind), an older engaged couple weeks away from their own wedding. Their seemingly calm and harmonious relationship is a juxtaposition to Albee and Walker; as Ben and Carly talk about how happy they are together before going to bed, Albee smokes weed by herself in an outdoor tub and rebuffs Walker’s attempt at sharing a bottle of champagne with her.
The dysfunction in their marriage is palpable and it causes their hosts to react strongly to it: Ben thinks that maybe Albee and Walker aren’t meant to be together and wants them to end it, while Carly believes the opposite and wants to try to help them. Ben thinks it’s a bad idea, saying that “bad relationships are contagious.”
And who can blame him for making this assertion? Especially after Ben witnesses Walker trying to get Albee to follow the steps of a book called “Seven Questions To Save Your Marriage” and she can’t even be bothered to take it seriously. All signs point towards divorce but still, there are fleeting moments where genuine ease and love are shown between the two, thanks in part to the superb acting chemistry between Midthunder and Gray. As the film goes on, layers and complexities are revealed, giving clarity to Walker’s deep frustrations and feelings of dejection as well as Albee’s barbed indifference to trying to salvage what they have. We learn that they are almost a decade into their marriage and that the two of them met as pre-teen foster kids in a group home before getting married at 16 so that Albee wouldn’t be subjected to her abusive, adopted father anymore.
Things come to a head when Carly invites the two to have lunch at her and Ben’s home where they all somehow get roped into doing the Seven Questions as a group. It’s a volatile scene that shows just how vicious Albee can be, not just to Walker but to everyone around her. As they’re all supposed to be talking about past wounds in their relationships, Albee is set off by Ben and Carly’s benign problems and reveals just how deep her own self-loathing goes and how doomed she believes their 8-year marriage is.
At the beginning of the film, Albee and Walker agree to be honest with each other throughout this endeavor: “we’re gonna be honest and hopefully we fix it.” But the thing is, oftentimes, fixing a relationship means ending it, because being honest comes with tar-covered baggage, awful feelings, and consequences. And the film proves that it’s honesty that’s contagious – not “bad relationships” – as small, subtle cracks in Ben and Carly’s soon-to-be marriage begin to deepen.
Conclusion: Another Kind of Marriage Story
Highlighted by Bella Gonzales‘ buoyant cinematography, The Wheel is fervent in its emotion and breathtaking in its portrayal of relationships being hobbled by broken communication and feelings of isolation, even when you’re supposed to be a partnership based on love and trust. Pink‘s direction in the film is sophisticated and of worthy note, while Midthunder and Gray show such unfortified depth in their performances, gracefully executing their respective characters’ burdens and hopes, which are only enhanced by Lind and Lee, who gleam in their supporting roles.
Marriage can be really tough, no matter how strong the foundation for it could be; when two people decide to build a life together they’re forced to mold their persistent wounds and their worst personality traits into a form that becomes more malleable as the other person does the same. Sometimes this can coalesce into something strained or something ignored and, as both couples in The Wheel learn, the only real option, no matter how frightening, is being honest with your partner because it ultimately means being honest with yourself.
What other movies with a “doomed marriage” do you enjoy? Please let us know in the comments below.
The Wheel had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival 2021.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ND9dnlN-S2s&t=2s
Watch The Wheel
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