Retro Film Review: The Wrong Man (1993)

Judging by the majority of Hollywood films, criminals on the run and other less fortunate Americans envision Mexico as the country of milk and honey, where all their problems would become thing of the past. Protagonist of The Wrong Man, 1993 drama directed by Jim McBride, is going to experience rude awakening from such pipe dreams. Alex Walker (played by Kevin Anderson) is US merchant sailor left stranded and penniless in Mexico. To make things even worse, he comes at the wrong place in the wrong time and thus becomes suspect in the murder case. In order to evade the authorities he meets unusual couple - aged con man Mills (played by John Lithgow) and his young, sexy wife Missy (played by Rosanna Arquette). He befriends them hoping that the three of them might leave the country. But as police, led by Captain Diaz (played by Jorge Cervera Jr.) and Detective Ortega (played by Ernesto Laguardia) is closing in, so is Alex torn between the friendship towards Mills and obvious lust he feels towards Missy.

Director Jim McBride, whose previous career includes interesting U.S. remake of Goddard's Breathless, could have turned Michael Thoma's script into thriller or comedy. Instead he decided to film The Wrong Man as drama, concentrating at the characters at the expense of plot and film's pace. The temptation was great, since John Lithgow didn't fail to deliver great performance in his role of Mills. Kevin Anderson, on the other hand, was rather uninspiring while Rosanna Arquette, although giving a fine acting job, catches our eye more because of scenes featuring her bare breasts. Interesting opportunity to use Mexican detectives as comic relief or some kind of Greek chorus was also wasted. When this overlong film ends, the viewers would be disappointed, less because of the film's bad quality, and more because of many missed opportunities.

RATING: 4/10 (+)

(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.movies.reviews on October 4th 2000)

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