Fausse piste

Rosanna Arquette oozes sexuality. Kevin Anderson plays a sailor wrongly accused of murder. John Lithgow plays a character that seems better suited to Dennis Hopper, drinking and insulting his way through the film. These three are thrown together in an extended road trip along the back roads of rural Mexico, while being pursued by the police. Nothing is certain as half-truths, double deals, and double crosses, unfold. Unfortunately not a lot happens in "The Wrong Man", but the acting is solid, and it is difficult to turn away from Rosanna Arquette in skimpy outfits, or topless. There is not a lot of action and at times things get quite talky, however watching Arquette can quickly make you forget any minor faults the movie may have. - MERK

The story is basically very simple: innocent man runs away from police who suspect him from murder. The makers of this movie chose not to create another hide and seek movie. Instead, their attention went to the characters, and not only of the protagonists. John Lithgow is brilliant as tha loudmouth doing 'monkey business', Kevin Anderson is great as the introvert suspect and Rosanna Arquette is lovely to watch as the sensual Missy. If look close, you'll notice that also the characters of the Mexican policemen have been drawn nicely. A movie for those who like to watch better movies only.

Merchant sailor Alex Walker (Kevin Anderson) is stranded in Mexico after missing his ship's departure. His wallet is stolen and the man who stole it is killed by somebody. The cops are after him for the murder. He joins up with Phillip Mills (John Lithgow) and his trophy wife Missy (Rosanna Arquette).

Kevin Anderson is a weak actor and his character isn't particularly interesting either. Arquette is broadly sexual. She even sleeps sucking her thumb. She has some fun camping it up. However Anderson is the black hole of charisma. Lithgow is possessive and jealous. The production is not high quality. If they could get a charismatic leading man, this could be an interesting trio.

In a south of the border setting, Lithgow is the quintessential Ugly American, Arguette his bimbo wife, and Anderson a bland non-entity on the run from the law. If you like seeing Arguette undraped (and it certainly beats being poked in the eye with a sharp stick) this third rate flick merits a look. Other than that, not much to recommend.

In Mexico Alex Walker has his wallet stolen by smuggler Felix Crawley. When he finds his house and goes in to get his money back he finds Felix shot and himself accused of murder. He runs and gets help from Missy and Phillip Mills, however his relationship with Missy begins to affect how cleanly he can get away.

False advertising! I watched this with the understanding that it was a thriller of some sort. However I'm sad to say that it isn't anything of the sort. The film opens OK and sets us up to have Alex hunt down the killer before the police catch him for the murder. Instead what happens is that he falls in with Missy and Phillip. He screws Missy a lot, Phillip fights and then is calm and over and over again ad nauseam. This continues till the end when the `shock' noir ending turned out to be what I had assumed from the first 10 minutes.

The film has no direction. The love triangle takes the place of the murder – except the occasional scene of the two Mexican police officers chasing Alex. Because it just drifts aimlessly it is very, very dull. I really had to force myself not to just turn it off and do something else instead simply because it is so very dull and boring.

Lithgow is OK but he lacks subtlety – I suspect he hammed it up because he didn't know any better than me what his character was all about. Arquette is annoying – all she does is flop her boobs out every 10 minutes or so, which is fine if you want that with no reason – but why not watch porn if that's all you want? Anderson is a TVM kind of guy and looks out of his depth with Lithgow and Arquette. He thinks all he needs to do is not shave and look moody to fit in – he is terrible and makes this film even more dull just by his presence.

Overall this is dull and aimless. Please – don't waste your time on this. I rarely see a film so poor that I struggle to watch it at all, but this felt to me like it took a year of my life to watch.