Wrong (Dupieux, 2012):USA

Reviewed by Larry Gleeson.
Viewed at the AFI Fest 2012 on November 2, 2012, 9:15 P.M., Chinese Mann Theatres.

Director  Quentin Dupieux, of “Rubber” fame, takes realism to a new level with his latest film, Wrong, a depiction of a hapless man, Dolph, who’s lost the one thing that matters most in an otherwise meaningless life – his devoted companion and confidant, Paul, a mixed breed lovable canine. Each day his alarm goes off at 7:60 and Dolph reports to a job he’s been fired from three months previously. Furthermore, the office has a continuous rain downpour while Dolph obsesses on how to get back in touch with Paul.

During his quest to get to Paul (and to get his life back together), Dolph begins taking an interest in the lives of those around him in an attempt to take his mind off his worries. He sees an ad with what appears to be a redundancy in the art work of the company’s logo and proceeds to call and engage the customer service representative in a rather high-brow dialogue which in turn stimulates the young customer service representative into super-charged sexual frenzy. Meanwhile, Dolph’s  Mexican gardener who needs to show Dolph something about a palm tree morphing into a shrub takes advantage of the situation and the seizes opportunity to sleep with the pizza delivery customer service representative who mistakenly believes the gardener is the person she so deeply and profoundly connected with in discussing the redundancy of the advertising logo. Dolph also manages to break through with his across-the-street, jogging in-denial-neighbor who’s on a journey of his own to find completeness by speeding through the desert in an ultra-fast coupe in a Hollywood tribute. And  as if that’s not enough an off-kilter pet detective who makes Ace Ventura seem pretty normal educates Dolph on the latest and greatest pet forensic technology that allows dog feces to be analyzed using chemical half-life to trace the feces path through the pet’s digestive tract until it’s exited from the pet’s body providing a last look of the pet from the fecal matter. Strange but true.

During his quest to find Paul, Dolph frantically begins searching for answers and comes to the profound conclusion he may may lose something even more vital than Paul: his mind as he begins meditating, visualizing and possible hallucinating in attempts to connect to his lost dog and companion confidante. Finally, there is some word on his dog – according to several intermediaries, the mysterious Master Chang who would like to speak with Dolph about Paul and his unknown whereabouts.

Dolph meets with Master Chang eventually and the story comes to a close providing the viewer with many unusual visuals and many unusual character driven scenes. At times, I felt as though Dupieux was really going out on a limb. Overall, I felt it quite entertaining. It was a film I took a chance on and was taken from the opening scene on a roller-coaster ride of laughter and good comedic timing both on the screen and with the other  audience viewers. Whole-heartedly recommended.