Is Mr. Wrong worthy of its notorious reputation?

Let’s find out:

So we start off with Martha Alston (Ellen DeGeneres) imprisoned. Investigators call her Mrs. Crawford and we find out why she shot someone on her wedding day (happens to the best of us, girlie).

We flashback. Martha goes to her younger sister’s wedding and her parents turn into Hallmark Channel parents. Martha’s job is that of an associate producer for a talk show in San Diego. Martha turns down Walter, she has a bad blind date and she cannot escape romantic imagery on the TV.

Martha goes to a bar and she drops a coin near a jukebox (that old trick). Martha meets poet/investor Whitman Crawford (Bill Pullman) and Martha and Whitman have er… ice cream.

Things go well until Martha meets Whitman’s mother. Whitman steals beer, and…

Welp… the honeymoon phase is over.

Inga (Whitman’s deranged ex) (Joan Cusack) starts giving Martha a hard time; so, Martha breaks things off with Whitman. Whitman refuses to accept the break-up and he tells Martha’s family that they are engaged. Martha’s family totally falls for this, despite Martha’s insistence to the contrary. Whitman kidnaps Martha and he takes her to Mexico. He has two Mexican children hold her hostage, and…

This screenplay feels like it was written by that one politically incorrect kid who was in your eighth grade class.

Anyway, Martha reaches out to Walter for help. Inga tries to off Martha; but, Whitman stops her.

Walter comes for Martha (that came out wrong). Martha shoots Whitman.

We get to the present. The investigators are unsympathetic to Martha. Walter and Bob (Inga’s accomplice) (Brad William Henke) stage a jailbreak for Martha. We find out that Inga was trying to off Martha; but, she accidentally shot Whitman. We find out that Whitman is going to make it.

Martha and Walter wind up together, Inga and Bob wind up together and Whitman looks for his next victim.

A Heathers/subversive take on a rom-com could have been really interesting. Rom-coms have been done to death, a lot of them do normalize stalking behavior and even the most independent of rom-com heroines winds up with someone at the end. But, Mr. Wrong is not the movie to do this. Comedy is hard to parody. The straight up rom-com stuff drags, laughs are rare and there are extended gags that do not work. Plus, the playing abusive romantic relationships for laughs angle feels uncomfortable in today’s environment. The screenplay is not good. Plus, Martha still winds up with someone at the end; so, it is really not that subversive. If you look up bad movie in the dictionary, you will find a poster for Mr. Wrong.

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