Mr. Wrong (film)

Infobox Film
name = Mr. Wrong


image_size =
caption =
director = Nick Castle
producer = Marty Katz
David Hoberman (executive producer)
writer =
narrator =
starring = Ellen DeGeneres
Bill Pullman
Joan Cusack
Dean Stockwell
music = Craig Safan
cinematography =
editing =
distributor = Touchstone Pictures
released = February 16, 1996 (USA)
runtime =
country = USA
language = English
budget =
gross = $12,350,030
preceded_by =
followed_by =
website =
amg_id =
imdb_id = 0117102

Mr. Wrong is 1996 romantic comedy starring Ellen DeGeneres and Bill Pullman. The next year DeGeneres came out of the closet and has not gotten a leading role in a romantic comedy since. DeGeneres still mentions this film occasionally in her talk show, "The Ellen DeGeneres Show".

Plot summary

The film begins with Martha Alston (Degeneres) in a wedding gown incarcerated in a Mexican prison. The investigators call her Mrs. Crawford and listen to her explain why she committed murder on her wedding day.

Some time ago, at her younger sister's wedding, Martha is pestered by her family about when she'll get married. At work, she rejects a date with a younger coworker, Walter (John Livingston). Disappointed by her dull Valentine's Day blind date, Martha goes home to sulk in front of the TV, where inundated by romantic imagery, is prompted to get out of the house. She goes to a bar where she drops her quarter in front of the jukebox. She bends down to get it, then a man shows up and selects the same song Martha would have chosen. The man is Whitman Crawford (Pullman), and they instantly hit it off. They go back to his house and have sex. Whitman says he's a poet and an investor. He reads Martha one of his poems.

Martha introduces Whitman to her family and he impresses them. But by the time Martha meets Whitman's mother, Martha has become convinced Whitman is not Mr. Right at all. Whitman's ex-girlfriend Inga (Joan Cusack) and her accomplice Bob (Brad William Henke) harass Martha. Inga refuses to believe that Martha has dumped Whitman. Whitman refuses to believe it either, and begins stalking Martha and trying to woo her back in increasingly ridiculous ways. Whitman even buys off Martha's private investigator (Dean Stockwell) and abducts Martha to Mexico to marry her there.

Walter shows up to rescue Martha from the wedding but trips. His gun falls into Martha's hand and she shoots Whitman. Then she's arrested, and the investigators conclude that she murdered Whitman. Walter springs her out of jail and explains that it was Inga who shot Whitman. Walter and Martha ride a horse West towards the sunset. Title cards over this scene explain that they eventually turned North towards the American border, that Inga and Bob get married, and that Whitman continues his search for love.

Criticism

Mick LaSalle, writing for the "San Francisco Chronicle", found this film "dreadful" and "inherently unfunny" after Martha dumps Whitman and he begins stalking her. [Mick LaSalle, "Little Right About `Mr. Wrong'" "San Francisco Chronicle", August 23, 1996, p. D-18]

Rita Kempley, writing for the "Washington Post" assessed this film a "sour, listless debunking of romantic comedies, ... [with] fewer laughs than "Looking for Mr. Goodbar" and laments that "Ellen DeGeneres, a comedian and sitcom star in her film debut, [who] is ostensibly the protagonist here" does not control the action, but her character "merely reacts to [Whitman's] twists and turn-ons." [Rita Kempley, ‘Mr. Wrong’ (PG-13), "Washington Post", February 17, 1996]

Not every critic was disparaging of the film, however. Martin & Porter give it three stars, and while acknowledging that "the script is predictable and Nick Castle's direction is only adequate," they find that "DeGeneres's personal charm and a few inspired gags make it all worthwhile." [Mick Martin & Marsha Porter, "DVD & Video Guide 2005" New York: Random House Publishing Group (2004), p. 737]

References

External links

*imdb title|id=0117102|title=Mr. Wrong