RED CORNER (R)
Directed by Jon Avnet Running Time: 119 minutes Originally Released: October 31, 1997
Reviewed by E. Benjamin Kelsey
* * (out of four)
Richard Gere's outspoken disapproval for Red China is the main motivation behind RED CORNER, but making a bad movie to portray "bad" government is a bad idea all around. Regardless of personal political convictions, it can be assured that this film has potential to be marked "cruel and unusual punishment" by many. If you're lucky, you'll have a choice between this film and a good caning. I'm still split on that one.
Gere plays American businessman Jack Moore, the man responsible for handling the overseas syndication of American television. In Beijing on a business trip, Jack finds it hard to sell the Chinese media officials on western entertainment, especially when the officials view such programming as "pornographic, violent, and superstitious". Unable to convince them otherwise, Jack spends the evening letting loose at a fashion show where he hooks up with an artistic model and takes her back to his hotel room. Things take a (melo)dramatic turn when Jack's awakened the next morning by Chinese police, blood all over his clothes, and his one-night stand lying dead on the floor.
What develops (or under-develops) is a "one-man stands alone" routine as Jack finds himself without help from the American Embassy or the assigned defense attorney, who also happens to be convinced of her client's guilt. The attorney is Shen Yuelin, played by the only commendable actor/actress in the film, Bai Ling. Shen refuses to allow a guilty plea, explaining to Jack, who refuses to comply with the plea, that there is "severity for those resist, leniency for those who confess". This has become a tag line for the film, but trust me, when it comes to seeing this film, resist, resist, resist!
In time, Jack begins to plant doubts in Shen's mind, and eventually, she repeals the guilty plea and begins helping Jack search for evidence to prove his innocence. All they know is the victim is the daughter of an influential general, and whether this has anything to do with the case is hidden in ambiguity (hmmmm, I wonder!), but the more they seem to discover, the more thugs emerge from the shadows to "quiet" them. It's not a suspenseful film as much as it strives to be. In fact, it's quite on the boring side. Gere has always struck me as a very plain actor, and this film is just a showcase of all that is mundane in film-making. He's just too unaffected by all the events taking place around him, whether they be in his favor or not. We never even get to know Jack before he's thrown into a jail cell and put on trial, so our interest in his welfare is never achieved. As stated, Ling is the only thing about this film that doesn't deserve a full-blown thumbs down.
It's hard to say much about RED CORNER when it's such a bland production. Courtroom dramas usually have a bit of depth to them as discoveries are made and the clock ticks down. In RED CORNER, some crucial bits of information are discovered, but the ending is sickeningly convenient and disappointing. Regardless of events occurring in the first 115 minutes, the end result, founded on sheer luck, would've been the same. That means all the developments we sit through are there for nothing more than filling time. "You will be shot in a week, and the cost of the bullet will be billed to your family," Yuelin tells Jack at one point. Hey, I'll do ya one better: "You will be forced to watch RED CORNER, and the cost of the ticket will be billed to your family".
Ouch that's cruel!
January 02, 1998
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