Boring and predictable are two words that are never associated with Alfred Hitchcock, but "The Wrong Man" is both.The story never catches fire, the acting is flat and drones on and on. Once the crime is revealed, early on, you know exactly how the case will proceed and how it will be resolved.You keep waiting for a twist or a reaction from the lead character, but you get nothing but more bleh...Anything else by Hitchcock would be better...

A common theme in Alfred Hitchcock's movies is a man accused of a crime that he didn't commit (Strangers on a Train, North by Northwest)*. "The Wrong Man" makes it clear that this is the topic. Henry Fonda plays a musician incorrectly identified as the man who held up an insurance office. Many shots of him feature either him alone - in the jail cell - or surrounded by people whose faces you can't totally see - in the car - to emphasize how his world has caved in. As much as the movie focuses on the protagonist, it also focuses on his wife (Vera Miles) and how she slowly descends into clinical depression.It only adds to the suspense that this movie is based on a true story, the only time that the Sultan of Suspense used a true story as the basis for one of his movies. Like his more famous works, it goes to show that few people knew how to tell a story like Alfred Hitchcock did. It's not his best movie, but I recommend it.*Conversely, another one of Hitch's themes was the guilty woman (Psycho, The Birds).

Traditionally, the tales spun by master director Alfred Hitchcock are concocted in the recesses of his own mind before being adapted for the big screen. This time, however, Hitchcock follows a different formula by tackling a true story about a wrongly accused man.For a basic plot summary, "The Wrong Man" tells the story of Emanuel Balestrero (Henry Fonda), who is falsely accused of committing numerous crimes around the neighborhood in which he lives. The film shows the process that "Manny" must go through in order to clear his name, as well as the physical and psychological toll it takes on his children and wife (Vera Miles).At its core, this is actually a very simple film. There are no jaw-dropping revelations or contrived dramatic situations. I have read that Hitch tried to be as close to the actual truth of the situation as possible with this film, and the product surely represents that philosophy.That being said, Hitchcock still manages to turn the experience into an entertaining one through his use of tension and unique camera techniques. As Manny's unbelievable story unwinds before the viewers, we can't helped be sucked in by asking ourselves "what would I do in his situation?".Thus, though not a traditional Hitchcock thriller/mystery by any means, "The Wrong Man" is a solid effort based on factual events, even further proving Hitchcock's extraordinary range of directing talents (the ability to turn a true story into gripping film).

I have to say, usually in this country it's an African-American man who gets arrested as the 'Wrong Man', but this Hitchcock film is indeed based closely on a true story. It's interesting to ponder why Hitch announces that fact at the outset, and I suppose it's because therein lies the true horror: that at any time, while minding our own business, we might be arrested and accused of crimes we haven't committed. We might be have our freedom taken, get locked up in a cage, and find ourselves at the mercy of the judicial system. The scenes where Henry Fonda is imprisoned are absolutely brilliant, as are the ones of him on trial, looking around the courtroom, and noticing the trivial little behaviors of those around him, while his own life hangs in the balance. The pace of this movie is a little slow at times, but a part of that is intentional, and heightens the realism. The police procedures may have you shaking your head, as will the notoriously unreliable eyewitness testimony. There is a bit of a twist in the story concerning Fonda's wife, played by Vera Miles, which I didn't expect. It's not Hitchcock's best work, but it is the most direct statement of his concerning this motif which appeared in so many of his films, and certainly worth watching.