a great mystery, yet not a wholly effective film

Rating: 6/10 (5 November 2006)

In the wrong place, wrong time, Slevin has had bad luck constantly struck him. Moving to stay with his friend Nick Fisher, Slevin becomes entangled in a debt held by Fisher. Selvin is mistaken to be Fisher, who owes debts to two crime bosses; The Boss and The Rabbi. Fisher owes money too both, yet caught in the problem, Slevin is forced to kill The Rabbi's son, revenge for The Boss. Circling around in the shadows of both bosses is assassin Goodkat, who seems to be setting Slevin up. Helping to solve Slevin's problem is Lindsey; the girl next door.
The Wrong Man (Australian release title), runs under a false misapprehension. A look at the trailer would have you believe this is a quirky, jazzy, gangster flick; great laughs to be held. Instead The Wrong Man is a much darker tale of coincidence, mistaken identity and retribution. That's not too say there isn't comedy, there are touches of humour spread through this story; just don't expect full out hilarity.
The Wrong Man has a smash up of influences; pulpy Tarantino dialog with touches of Shane Black's Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Payback. The most distinctive part of The Wrong Man is it's dialog. Writer Jason Smilovic has cleverly tried to created fast paced, pulpy dialog, yet never reaches the effectiveness of Tarantino or its ambitions. It lacks a lot of subtlety and the intellectual stability to keep it captivating. Conversations run around in circles, never going anywhere; where's the focus and cohesiveness. Smilovic wants to bite you with forked tongued wit, but lacks the teeth.
Patience is a virtue. A virtue needed for The Wrong Man takes time to focus itself, from a very muddled beginning. The mystery surrounding all the characters and their part in the overall scheme takes awhile for pieces to start clicking; similar to the dialog, it is abit of a run around for some time. Misdirection is used exceedingly well by director Paul McGuigan; as Goodkat said, when everyone is looking to the right, you should be looking to the left. McGuigan really gets into the guts of the story post mid-point, but pushes the line to far with too many twists in quick succession. When the darker elements are finally injected, you start to feel its grip dragging you in; but too little to late.
Bruce Willis is cool and collected as Goodkat, walking in the shadows and behind his mystery plan. Josh Hartnett is at his best as Slevin, constantly holding his down trodden character in good esteem. Lucy Liu is beautiful as innocent Lindsey, jumping in head first to help Slevin's problem. Morgan Freeman not near his best, yet still strong. Ben Kingsley takes lead from his character Don Logan from Sexy Beast, toning Don's sheer vulgarity for a head strong Rabbi.
While The Wrong Man does run around in circles for some time, when it finally heads in a clear direction, a great, dark mystery can be found to unravel.