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Film Review
"Red
Corner"
directed
by Jon Avnet
(MGM-UA, 1997) |
Chalk
it up to cosmic coincidence - or a bad bottle of karma.
Somehow
both Richard Gere and Brad Pitt thought October '97 was ripe for
a little anti-Chinese propaganda, Hollywood-style. Gere's "Red Corner"
was to be a labor of love; Pitt's " Tibet," a free ticket to credibility.
"Saving
Tibet [from the Chinese] is saving the best part of ourselves,"
Gere told the San Francisco Chronicle. "That's the way
I've always seen it. When I'm saving Tibet, I'm saving that part
of me that is dissatisfied and unhappy and sees injustice and misery."
"Who cares
what I think China should do?" Pitt told Time magazine.
"I'm a fucking actor! They hand me a script. I act. I'm here for
entertainment, basically, when you whittle everything away. I'm
a grown man who puts on makeup." |
October 1997 |
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Well,
when you're right, you're right. Pitt's "Tibet" is just what you'd
expect from a man of shallow devotion - sentimental Hollywood trash.
But who would have guessed Gere's "Red Corner" is, truth be told,
much the same.
A
film which stands firmly at first as a bold indictment of human
rights abuse, "Red Corner" quickly slouches its way to enough sog
and mush to shame the Crispix people. Undoubtedly it will go down
as Gere's worst career move since his divorcing Cindy Crawford.
The
plot centers on Jack Moore (Gere), a womanizing TV executive who
comes to China to negotiate a multi-million dollar deal, only to
end up at a local club, seducing an attractive model. After a night's
romp of swapping fluids, Moore wakes up to find the girl's head
severed and his fingerprints on the murder weapon. It's a corrupt
Chinese cop's field day as Moore is soon railroaded through a system
that knows no justice or humanity. "Leniency for those who confess,"
runs the state's motto, "severity for those who resist." The executive
is subsequently handcuffed, beaten, electrocuted, and - in a great
touch of class - forced to eat out of a bowl dipped in feces. At
last, when things could get no worse, Moore's public defender (Chai
Ling) shows up and, without consulting him, pleads him guilty.
In
the inept hands of director Jon Avnet - the great mind behind such
ingenious entertainments as "D2: The Mighty Ducks" and "D3: The
Mighty Ducks" - the drama of the plot's twists and turns is drilled
home with the force of a blunt spoon. That's because all human emotions
have been neatly cleaved from the story. Fear, anger, pain? Don't
look here. Gere's executive takes a licking and comes back scene
after scene - intrepid, resourceful and well ironed. Later, in one
of the film's most unlikely plot contrivances, Ling's defender becomes
enraptured by Gere's immeasurable charm and does a 180 degree turn,
defying the court to become a crusader for his cause. Yet never
once does she pause, apprehensive of violent retribution. It's as
if Avnet gave up on developing his characters' humanity and decided
instead to make them bland symbolic markers. "Red Corner" courses
with such people: faceless, unmotivated bureaucrats, embassy personnel,
army officials, and main characters.
In
the end it's a dose too much Hollywood hokum to swallow. The screenplay
by Robert King abandons the enthralling starkness of the Chinese
torture chambers and exchanges them for the run-of-the-mill bustling
of Hong Kong 's back streets, through which Gere makes a comical
escape jaunt. He's like Aladdin evading the Sultan - ducking and
dodging, leaping and hiding - except Gere seems markedly less interesting
and surprisingly less human. Soon after, King's human rights plot
is sacrificed whole for more mundane purposes: a Perry Mason-esque
"shocker" and a little romance between Defender Ling and Guess Who.
As
the heart of the film begins to disappear through the haze of this
lesser fare, it becomes clear where Avnet, Gere and company went
wrong. They dove headfirst for entertainment value when they should
have been digging for substance. Only a sober, rigorous account
of the inmate experience could have been an indictment with sting.
As it is, "Red Corner" will come and go within a few weeks.
And
no one will be more disappointed than Gere himself. A devout Buddhist
and vocal activist for Tibetan freedom, Gere timed the release of
his film to coincide with Chinese leader Jiang Zemin's Washington
visit. On the street outside the White House he stood, with a host
of angry protesters, hoisting picket signs and scratching for media
attention.
But
to gain a world-wide audience, he'll need a film to do the talking
for him. And nothing as watered down as "Red Corner" will do.
-
Joshua Kors
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