‘Wrong’ Not The Right Move For Degeneres

In Ellen DeGeneres’ first movie, Bill Pullman is “Mr. Wrong,” and DeGeneres is Ms. Wrong Career Move.

“Mr. Wrong” isn’t as horrible as you’d think, based on the way Disney is heaving it into theaters. But it’s similar to last year’s “A Pyromaniac’s Love Story,” another romantic comedy that couldn’t decide what color its parachute was. Both movies veer uneasily between frothy farce and dark, violent satire.

DeGeneres plays Martha, a woman who is 31 (in DeGeneres’ dreams) and unattached. Then she meets Whitman (Pullman), whose perfection quickly degenerates into weird behavior and petty crimes.

He also has a jealous ex-girlfriend (Joan Cusack, as an infantile crazywoman) who tortures Martha by putting gum in her hair.

This is good for some laughs, but you can smell trouble already. DeGeneres plays the same confused woman she plays on TV, except she wears dresses and she’s not as funny. Compared to her hyperventilating co-stars, who seem to have wandered in from “Pee Wee’s Playhouse,” her low-key performance falls somewhere between comatose and “resting comfortably.”

As a couple, DeGeneres and Pullman are 100 percent spark-free, even when they’re supposed to be hitting it off.

Unwisely, this “romantic” angle is emphasized in some sentimental love scenes that do not play to DeGeneres’ strengths.

In her hilarious stand-up routines, DeGeneres often says something that seems to be poignant - and then undercuts it with an unexpected zinger: “At the age of 90, my grandmother took up walking five miles a day,” she used to say. “And now we don’t know where the hell she is.” Now, that’s funny.

But “Mr. Wrong” has fallen into that seems-to-be-poignant area and it can’t get up.

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MOVIE REVIEW “Mr. Wrong” Locations: Lincoln Heights, Lyons and Coeur d’Alene Cinemas Credits: Directed by Nick Castle; starring Ellen DeGeneres, Bill Pullman, Joan Cusack, Dean Stockwell and Joan Plowright. Running time: 92 minutes Rating: PG-13