About the Film
Veronika (Klára Issová) is a Czech girl from Prague in her 20’s working as a secretary and living with her abusive boyfriend Vaclav (Hynek Čermák). When Vaclav is arrested for stealing a computer from the office where she works, he’s tossed in jail and she’s fired. Desperate to find the money to spring him from jail Veronika asks her mother (Hana Seidlová), who only offers her more abuse. After seeking advice from her priest (Jan Nemejovský) she goes to see the only friend she can think of who could possibly lend her the money, a high-end call girl named Lucy (Klara Apolenarova).
Lucy says she can’t lend her the kind of money she needs, however she is willing to pass Veronika one of her clients, a guy coming in later today from America, a ‘playful’ businessman named Jim Johnson. Veronika responds with horror (she could never do something like that) but Lucy – hoping to get away to see her boyfriend in Amsterdam – works on her, and slowly but surely wears her down, lends her clothes and convinces her to go through with it.
Veronika drives to the airport, drops Lucy for her flight to Amsterdam and goes to arrivals to meet the incoming American but she picks up the wrong Jim Johnson, an African-American jazz drummer of the same name (Jeffrey Joseph), who has flown in to replace a musician fallen ill on a European tour and sees Veronika standing there holding a misspelled sign with his name on it. The sex-tourist who was supposed to be her client (Nick Mancuso), delayed in customs after they discover some oddities in his suitcase, is instead picked up by a groupie named Sonya (Daniela Choděrová), sent by the concert promoter to fetch the drummer and who arrives somewhat late. The error goes undiscovered thanks to the fact that the Americans understand absolutely no Czech and the Czechs speak next to no English.
Veronika, terrified from the start about going through with this, now finds herself facing an African American, and her terror increases. Somehow though she finds enough courage, and leads him to her car. But as she drives him into the city she has no idea what she’s supposed to do and she changes her mind several times about whether to go through with anything or not. Jet lagged, drummer Jim is at first impatient with her, then perplexed, but it doesn’t take long for him to begin to wonder about this girl so obviously distraught and jumpy. He realizes something is wrong, but having no way to communicate with her, he lets her lead the way, wherever it goes.
Meanwhile Sonya is immediately flattered by naughty Jim’s blatant attentions; he takes for granted she must be a substitute girl sent by Lucy and finds her very cute, and Sonya believes he must be the American drummer showing interest in her and she goes for it and has fun with him. The comedy of errors persists throughout the night and into the next morning when Vaclav is suddenly released from jail after charges are dropped by Veronika’s boss; Veronika wakes up hungover in Jim’s hotel room and realizes she passed out after drinking a half a bottle of duty free whiskey but that he apparently just tucked her in and went off to sleep on the sofa; while the other Jim decides to expand the party in his luxury hotel suite and calls for a prostitute to make it a threesome with Sonya. When Vaclav returns to his neighborhood he hears his girlfriend has been seen around town with a black guy, and compels Belfagor, a street character with a stolen moped (Václav Chalupa) to help him track her down.
The film accelerates as it follows the three parallel stories: Veronika and Jim, as they find a way to communicate and come to know one other; Sonya and the other Jim as they face a handful when the prostitute called in, Apollonia (Lucie Vondráčková), has an existential crisis; and Vaclav and Belfagor as they race around Prague, trying to find the errant Veronika. When circumstances finally lead the characters to converge at the Agharta Jazz Club the consequences are funny and dramatic, surprising and inevitable.
The Wrong Mr Johnson is a heartfelt and ultimately cheerful independent film about love and respect produced in the Czech Republic, the unique result of the collaboration of Czech and international talent.
