The Wrong Guy (1997).
The Stage.
Nelson, a middle manager for a Cleveland based business, is passed up for a promotion. Furious, he threatens to kill his boss (who also happens to be his father-in-law). A few hours later, the boss turns up dead, and everyone thinks Nelson did it. Just kidding, only Nelson thinks that everyone thinks he did it. He goes on the lamb while being pursued by no one.
The Review.
About twelve minutes into The Wrong Guy, you know you’re watching something special. Dave Foley, cast perfectly as the meek, oft mistaken for a woman, Nelson, walks out of his boss’s office covered in blood and holding the knife he pulled from his boss’s dead neck. In most comedies, this is where the misunderstanding starts, and we’d spend the rest of the film watching him evade the law while trying to clear his name. In this film, in the very next scene, we see the cops watching security footage of exactly what happened, joking about Nelson and trying to figure out the identity of the actual assassin, who is clearly shown in the footage. They know he’s not guilty. The comedy in the film comes from Nelson thinking he’s being hounded by the cops when he’s actually not. Dave Foley is outstanding in this film and a lot of the charm comes from his willingness to consistently look foolish. He’s definitely committed to the role and I just loved his character.
The assassin, a master of disguise who always fully commits to whatever garb he’s wearing, is in pursuit of Nelson because of his own misunderstanding. The assassin, known only as ‘The Killer’ is played wonderfully by Colm Feore, a character actor who you’ve probably seen dozens of times on-screen and just never knew his name. And on his tail is Detective Arlin, played by David Anthony Higgens, a man who has absolutely no interest in the case aside from being extremely impressed with the killer’s ability to lift himself into a ventilation shaft. Higgens, who most people would probably know as Craig, Lois’s co-worker on Malcolm in the Middle, was fantastic in this film. Also in the cast is Jennifer Tilly playing Lynn, a small town girl who catches the eye of Nelson when he comes to town on the run.
The film is equal parts slapstick, absurdist, and witty dialogue driven comedy. It’s really tough to get a combination like this right, but The Wrong Guy nails it for the most part. The script, which was based on a discarded sketch Dave Foley had written for Kids in the Hall, was written by Foley, Higgens, and Jay Kogen, who wrote for The Simpsons during its killer 1990-1993 run. You can tell, because several scenarios in this film feel like you could have swapped Nelson out for Homer Simpson and it would have been right at home in Springfield. A gag in which Nelson dives onto a moving train and flies right out the other side is just one example. I thought the
The End.
The Wrong Guy is a very funny film that has to be one of the most underrated comedies of the nineties. Rumor has it that this was originally going to be a Jim Carrey vehicle, probably abandoned when Liar, Liar got thrown his way. Foley was, at one point, attached to direct, but couldn’t when the News Radio schedule wouldn’t allow it. I imagine that if Carrey had starred with Foley behind the camera, Foley’s career trajectory would have been a whole lot different than it ended up being. The Kino Lorber disc is now long out of print, a shame, as it has a commentary by director David Steinberg and all three writers that I’d love to hear. It’s not even currently available on Amazon, so I’ll be keeping my eyes open for this one at the second-hand shops, and you should too. The Wrong Guy is a gem of a comedy that really deserves to be seen by more people.
