april-2010

and is inspired to get his life together.
It starts as fl irtation when he fi nds a
sympathetic listener in Jean Craddock
(Maggie Gyllenhaal), a reporter sent
to interview him for a newspaper
article. Jean sees Bad plainly, sees his
drinking and the way his recklessness
can sabotage his career, but she decides
not to turn away. “I knew what the risks
were with you, and I took ’em,” she
tells him as their relationship deepens.
It’s a subtly moving statement of
unconditional love that’s enough to pull
anyone out of self-pity.
“Jean accepts a lot of these things
in Bad because she herself is kind of
drunk on love for him,” said Gyllenhaal.
“She’s a really emotional person,
and there are parts of Bad that are so
wonderful, the way he cares for her
son Buddy, which really moves her, the
way he’s so loving with her, even when
he’s drunk.”
It’s ironic that as the James Bonds
become even more relentlessly elegant,
and the G.I. Joes become brawnier
and more fearless, audiences can’t
get enough of the down-and-out Mr.
Wrong. He can pine for a second
chance, the right business deal or the
right girl, and we pull for him all the
way. While the latest Nicholas Sparks
hunk might look great surfi ng in the
sunset, a guy like Bad appeals to the
human impulse to rescue someone.
“That’s a characteristic of these movies,”
SWEET SCENES
Some of the most romantic moments
in fi lm have featured Mr. Wrong.
CASABLANCA
1942
Humphrey Bogart’s cynical
con-artist character kisses
Ingrid Bergman goodbye
before she gets on a plane.
CRAZY IN LOVE Bad Blake and Jean in Crazy Heart
about Mr. Wrong, says Chuck Walton,
editor of Fandango.com. “It’s the guy’s
last chance and he’s trying not to blow
it ... The strong female characters help
pull these underdogs out of the hole.”
It’s an old trope, the fl ipside of the
knight on the white horse saving the
princess. The long-suff ering woman
saves the deadbeat from himself,
in exchange for nothing but love.
“When I meet that hero with the dark
wounded soul, my initial reaction is not
sadistic delight in his pain,” says Beth
Cornelison, an author of Harlequin
LADY AND THE TRAMP
1955
Perhaps the defi nition of
Mr. Wrong, the streetwise
mutt shares a meatball with
the pedigreed Lady.
WEST SIDE STORY
1961
Tony, a member of the Jets,
prepares to leave gang life
behind for Maria in the
moments before his death.
Romantic Suspense novels. “But rather
a sympathetic ache, a burning desire to
help, to heal, and to ease his suff ering.”
Walton points to three distinct
types of Mr. Wrong. There’s the urban
persona: nebbishy, wise though clumsy,
honed to bumbling imperfection by
Woody Allen and, more recently, Hugh
Grant in Did You Hear About the Morgans?
or Robert Downey Jr. in Sherlock Holmes.
Then there’s the country incarnation:
the cowboy who drowns his sorrows
through drinking, such as Bad, or
engaging in criminal behavior, such
WHEN HARRY MET SALLY
1989
After years of on-again,
off-again romance, Billy
Crystal and Meg Ryan share
a binding New Year’s kiss.