Gere unleashes his usual cocky smugness as Jack Moor, a media maverick trying to cut a blockbuster telecasting deal with the powers that be in the Chinese government. Trouble finds Jack in the form of a beautiful model who sets his loins on fire. After a night of steamy passion, which he can barely remember, he winds up in jail for murder.

From there the film rambles along as a weary courtroom drama, with Jack trying to prove his innocence against a totalitarian process. But the biggest injustice in Red Corner stems from the script, which infuses the bureaucratic proceedings with preposterous action sequences. Bai Ling is a delightful new face as Gere's court-appointed attorney, but even her effervescence is dissipated by the wooden, ill-placed, almost risible dialogue.