Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Very good character study, 15 Nov 2008
Once again Hitchcock surprises us by making a movie that is completely different from the other better known films he made in this era. Theres no Hollywood action and very little of his trademark suspense in this movie. Its almost a procedural Police movie with a bit of court room drama thrown in for good measure. Above all this though is how the relationship between a man and wife is stretched beyond the limit by a simple misidentification.
Henry Fonda looks suitably haunted and Vera Miles as his wife Rose perhaps even more so. What Hitchcock portrays so well in this movie is the reality of an innocent person being prosecuted for a crime he did not commit.
This is also part of an excellent boxed set which I strongly recommend. Sure this isn't a classic Hitchcock but even an average Hitchcock is much better than most other filmmakers attempts.
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Hitchcock's "true story" lacks suspense, 16 Aug 2008
The idea of "The Wrong Man" is something that permeates through a number of Hitchock films although this can be said to be unique in his cannon, based as it is so closely on a real life event.
Henry Fonda (if you've seen him in one movie, you probably know what to expect from him here) stars as Manny Balestero, a man who is falsely identified as a petty thief who has held up an insurance office. It's as blatant as it could be from the beginning that he didn't do it but whilst family and, to some extent, friends rally around him, the police stoically set about getting him convicted.
Your opinion of Fonda in the role obviously greatly effects your view on the movie. Some will find his passive character (there is no outburst upon his arrest, or even later when things look even bleaker) off-putting, but then Hitchcock never meant the character to be proactive as that would have changed the emphasis of the film. The film is not about Manny's struggle to prove his innocence as much as it is about the system failing an honest man, feelings a million miles away from Hitchcock's classic "wrong man" movies such as North By Northwest.
Fonda is fine in his role, and Vera Miles is effective as his wife, overcome by the struggle that ensues.
Whilst somewhat in a documentary tone, Hitchock has his one speaking part in his movies introducing the piece, there are certain moments of suspense and the scene where the insurance office workers share their suspicion of Manny with each other is one stand out point. But to put things into perspective, few would name this as one of his standout films and it is less likely to appeal to casual film fans looking for 100 minutes of entertainment than it is to Hitchcock afficionado's.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Hitchcock DVD - 'The Wrong Man', 2 Jul 2009
To all those who perceive Hitchock as a manipulative voyeur (and to some extent, of course, his strength relies on that) here is something of a corrective. It's a film he made for free; and as the depiction of a real-life case, in order to publicize the plight of a man wrongly convicted and stigmatised. Far more than the smug, stagey, ostentatiously liberal self-consciousness of "Twelve Angry Men" this is a sober, low-key and undemonstrative film that shows how social and judicial injustice blights, perhaps forever, the lives of those caught up in it. It is also (for those who might be interested) the most accurate depiction of clinical depression in any movie to date.
For people who think they know Hitchcock, and have yet to be won over, this and "Shadow of a Doubt" are the films you must see.
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