A couple of years ago, Scottish director Paul McGuigan (The Acid House) managed to turn a French terror-tale of mistaken identity (The Apartment) into a passionless Hollywood sludge-fest (Wicker Park). Putting that firmly behind him, though re-saddled with the dogged Hartnett, he’s treading similar ground with a newly minted screenplay. When mistaken identity places Slevin (Hartnett) in the middle of a dispute between two crime kings (Freeman and Kingsley), a relentless detective (Stanley Tucci) and a determined hit-man (Bruce Willis), he has his job cut out convincing them they’ve got the wrong man. Working from a sprightly script, McGuigan sets out to blend Hitchcock, Leonard and Tarantino without making it look as if he has: Kiss Kiss The Suspect’s Layer Cake if you will. And he nearly succeeds.

Hartnett suggests there’s more to him than a goofy smile and smooth chest, even though he spends most of the first half displaying both from behind a modesty towel. He recalls Robert Downey Jr. at his smug best in bringing this sub-Cary Grant character to life. It fires up when Slevin meets a dishy coroner (Lucy Liu) and the pair come out fighting, albeit in a foolish kind of way. McGuigan finds himself doing a juggling act with suave shenanigans on one hand and a twisty thriller on the other. It might have worked if his too-clever writer hadn’t denounced his double-crossing double-crossers at the start, painting everyone into a corner of cheap trickery. Yet for all its flaws there’s a jaunty sense of fun that finds The Wrong Man in reasonably good form – Kingsley, Liu and, surprisingly, Hartnett foremost among them.

// COLIN FRASER