IT'S MORE 'WRONG' THAN RIGHT.

Byline: Janet Maslin The New York Times

"Sometimes chemistry works and sometimes it doesn't," says Martha Alston (Ellen DeGeneres), trying tactfully to ditch an unwanted beau. "Sometimes you get an explosion - or a really bad smell."

Unlike the mismatched lovers they play in "Mr. Wrong," Ellen DeGeneres and Bill Pullman actually do have good chemistry, but they don't have a movie to show it off. Good-humored but mostly flat, "Mr. Wrong" wastes an amusing premise and two likable stars.

Though "Mr. Wrong" marks DeGeneres' feature-film debut, huge close-ups and broad gags give it more of a television flavor.

As directed sloppily by Nick Castle, this comedy barely lets its main characters develop, even though either of them could be great fun. DeGeneres has the more reticent role as a single woman inundated by thoughts of romance, even though none of these thoughts happens to be her own.

A newlywed sister, love-struck co-workers, "From Here to Eternity" on television: It adds up to so much external pressure that Martha takes a chance on a world-class loser.

Pullman, that rare comic actor who can go from heartthrob to Jim Carrey-esque lunatic without missing a beat, plays the apparent dreamboat named Whitman Crawford.

Wowing Martha when they meet on Valentine's Day (in a first-date sequence that Castle lets drag on too tamely), Whitman soon reveals his darker side. One night, he shoplifts beer at a convenience store, calls the owner "Homie," empties a beer can while driving away, smashes it against his forehead and then throws it at an old man in the street.

"What can I say?" he tells Martha, who is beginning to worry. "I'm in the zone."

"Mr. Wrong" should have spent more time in that zone itself. This comedy rarely gets crazy enough to be liberatingly wild, although it picks up slightly after Martha tells Whitman to get lost. This frees Pullman to become the perfect pest, even turning up in Martha's hospital room after she is injured and admiring the compress strapped to her head. ("God, you look sexy in that little hat.") When he falls asleep in a chair at her bedside, he has an open copy of "The Fountainhead" in hand.

DeGeneres does a solid job of presenting herself as the only sane person on screen, but the role doesn't go much further. And nobody in "Mr. Wrong" has been photographed to good advantage, thanks to consistently unflattering camera angles and hand-held scenes that look awkward and shaky.

Also in "Mr. Wrong" are Joan Plowright as Whitman's weird mother, Maddie Corman and Ellen Cleghorne as Martha's office mates, Robert Goulet as the talk-show host for whom Martha works, John Livingston as the nice young man she should have chosen and Joan Cusack as Whitman's amusingly demented ex-girlfriend. Cusack, sporting one of Madonna's old ponytails, plays somebody so violently unhinged that it is rumored she "once tried to assassinate the rock temptress Stevie Nicks."

THE FACTS

The film: "Mr. Wrong" (PG-13; discreet bedroom scenes and mild profanity).

The stars: Ellen DeGeneres, Bill Pullman, Joan Cusack, Dean Stockwell, Joan Plowright, Robert Goulet, Ellen Cleghorne.

Behind the scenes: Directed by Nick Castle. Written by Chris Matheson, Kerry Ehrin and Craig Munson. Released by Touchstone Pictures.

Running time: One hour and 32 minutes.

Playing: Citywide.

Our rating: Two stars