The Woman in Red

Gene Wilder's dopey romantic farce is perhaps most notable for introducing the world to Kelly Le Brock, whose sub-Jennifer Beals looks and billowy tresses (and dresses) captivated the attention of millions of 13-year-old minds (attached to bodies of all ages) for much of the 1980s. The best that can be said about Le Brock is that she's cast well as an object of affection; she isn't required to open her mouth for most of the picture, but on the fleeting occasion that she does, what comes out is stilted and fake, and not in the midlife-fantasia way that director Gene Wilder might have intended. Though most audiences might have been lured to the picture on the promise of a Le Brock-a-thon, certainly most were disappointed to find that The Lady in Red is in actuality a slack buddy movie, populated by the crudest, most retrograde male stereotypes imaginable and capped by a dim homily to marital fidelity that seems as disingenuous as an anti-smoking ad distributed by a cigarette company. Worse, Wilder's work as a director is slack and tedious: His set-ups take forever, and his punchlines are drawn out interminably for maximum guffaws, when in actuality they might warrant no more than a chuckle. Operating on another plane entirely is his wife-to-be Gilda Radner, in a thankless but hilarious turn as the lowly office worker who harbors a not-so-secret crush on his character. Hidden behind leviathan sunglasses and a brown trenchcoat, Radner performs in an exaggerated staccato that suggests a better, more surreal black comedy lurking within The Woman in Red's insipid jocularity. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide