Leo and his girlfriend sit at the breakfast table. Neither one has a smile on their face. Then she speaks: “I’ve been writing a blog about how much you suck.” It’s true, she has. It’s called, aptly, WhyYouSuck.net, and there are hundreds of posts about how Leo doesn’t like Asian food and how he drinks like a teenage girl. And because Leo is such an easy target, the blog gets millions of shares and retweets.
A year and a half later, Leo (Ryan Kwanten, who plays Jason Stackhouse on HBO’s TRUE BLOOD) is on the same couch and Julie (Kristen Hager, A LITTLE BIT ZOMBIE) is on talk shows going on about how terrible he is and the eventual success of her upcoming book. But Leo has a chance to get his act together when he attends a wedding and meets what could be the girl of his dreams. That girl, Colette (Sara Canning, HANNAH’S LAW), is in a wedding dress and marrying some meathead from Dartmouth (Ryan McPartlin, who played Devon “Captain Awesome” Woodcomb on NBC’s CHUCK). Leo hits on her anyway, because that’s just how low things have gotten for the juggling dishwasher.
Despite a black eye, Leo decides to continue his pursuit, all the while providing asinine insights via narration that he must think sound profound on paper. His views on relationship failures are along the lines of, “If you have one cat named Snow and another named Balls, when your girlfriend leaves you, you’ll be stuck with Balls,” and his insights on fellow males only extend to, “You have to be kind of a dick to drive a Hummer.”
Leo has no business bothering with Colette, who he doesn’t know at all and who could very well be worse than Julie. Because of his behavior (which includes—and let’s not sugarcoat it—stalking), it’s difficult for the viewer to root for Leo, who is less a hopeless romantic than a borderline psycho and is more suited for a restraining order than a wedding ring. And since the movie relies on our cheering him on through his efforts to win the girl (and overcoming his fear of heights, which is meant to play for laughs) THE RIGHT KIND OF WRONG is a complete failure.
The movie is a series of wrong moves, perfectly predicted in the movie’s opening credits, which depict a computer screen backspacing and then fixing every typo in the company and crew member names that show up on the screen. The only difference is that screenwriter Megan Martin never tries to correct any of the errors in the messy characters and plotlines novelist Tim Sandlin created.
THE RIGHT KIND OF WRONG is directed by Jeremiah S. Chechik, whose diverse filmography also includes NATIONAL LAMPOON’S CHRISTMAS VACATION, BENNY & JOON and THE AVENGERS (the one that didn’t make $1.5 billion worldwide). The supporting cast includes Will Sasso as Leo’s publisher friend and Catherine O’Hara as Colette’s disapproving mother. It premiered at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival.
Video: 2.40:1 in 1080p with MPEG-4 AVC codec. Magnolia’s high-definition presentation of THE RIGHT KIND OF WRONG is a very strong one, with excellent colors and clarity throughout.
Audio: English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio. Subtitles in English and Spanish. The audio is also quite good, with clean dialogue and a fine score (by Rachel Portman).
Behind the Scenes (7:57): This featurette uses on-set footage and interviews (with Ryan Kwanten, Sara Canning, Catherine O’Hara and more) to provide an overview of THE RIGHT KIND OF WRONG.
The Music (6:14) covers Rachel Portman’s contributions.
“THE RIGHT KIND OF WRONG Rap” (0:53): Child actors Mateen Devji and Maya Sami offer a short rap about the plot.
AXS TV: A Look at THE RIGHT KIND OF WRONG (2:58) is a brief promotional piece with clips and interview snippets.
Deleted Scenes (6:02): There are three here, which can only be viewed as a whole.
Trailer
