Mr. Wrong

For the Mr. Men character, see List of Mr. Men#Mr. Wrong.

Mr. Wrong
Promotional poster
Directed by	Nick Castle
Produced by	Marty Katz David Hoberman (executive producer)
Starring	Ellen DeGeneres Bill Pullman Joan Cusack Dean Stockwell Joan Plowright
Music by	Craig Safan
Distributed by	Touchstone Pictures
Release date(s)	February 16, 1996 (USA)
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$19 million
Box office	$12,350,030

Mr. Wrong is 1996 romantic comedy film starring Ellen DeGeneres and Bill Pullman. 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 open a pet store in Albuquerque, and that Whitman continues his search for love.

Reception

The film received extremely negative reviews, garnering a score of 4% on Rotten Tomatoes.^[1]

Mick LaSalle, writing for the San Francisco Chronicle, found this film "dreadful" and "inherently unfunny" after Martha dumps Whitman and he begins stalking her.^[2]

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".^[3]

Not every critic was disparaging of the film, however. Martin & Porter gave it three stars, and while acknowledging that "the script is predictable and Nick Castle's direction is only adequate", they found that "DeGeneres's personal charm and a few inspired gags make it all worthwhile".^[4]

Ellen DeGeneres' performance in Mr. Wrong earned her a Razzie Award nomination for Worst New Star.

References

1. ^ http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/mr_wrong/
2. ^ Mick LaSalle, "Little Right About `Mr. Wrong'" San Francisco Chronicle, August 23, 1996, p. D-18
3. ^ Rita Kempley, ‘Mr. Wrong’ (PG-13), Washington Post, February 17, 1996
4. ^ Mick Martin & Marsha Porter, DVD & Video Guide 2005 New York: Random House Publishing Group (2004), p. 737

External links

• Mr. Wrong at the Internet Movie Database
• Mr. Wrong at Rotten Tomatoes
• Mr. Wrong at Box Office Mojo