The Woman in Red (1984) * *

 

Directed by:  Gene Wilder

Starring:  Gene Wilder, Judith Ivey, Kelly LeBrock, Charles Grodin, Joseph Bologna, Michael Huddleston, Gilda Radner

Teddy Pierce (Wilder) is a San Francisco advertising executive who finds himself standing in his robe on a ledge of a tall building .  He laments that just six weeks earlier, he didn't have much adventure in his life.  He had a stable home and family, a good job, and he "never looked twice when a pretty girl walked by".  One morning in his company's parking lot, he sees Charlotte (LeBrock), a model dressed in a red skirt who walks over a grate which blows her skirt up a la Marilyn Monroe in The Seven-Year Itch.   It made Monroe immortal, but no so much for LeBrock.  But Teddy is riveted and soon makes it his business to get to know Charlotte, which leads to complications, misunderstandings, and eventually a lame payoff.  What is remarkable about The Woman in Red is how it is able to squeeze in not just Teddy's quest for Charlotte, but its other subplots into a movie that is barely ninety minutes.   Today, ninety minutes is only the setup. 

A lot of time is spent on Teddy hanging with his buddies Joey (Bologna), a womanizing married man, Buddy (Grodin), who is secretly gay, and Mikey (Huddleston), who is having an affair with a married doctor's wife.  The movie works hard to touch all of these characters and give them adequate screen time.  Oh and let's not forget Teddy's unsuspecting wife Didi (Ivey), who is oblivious to her husband's suddenly odd behavior.   The pursuit of Charlotte soon feels like an afterthought, and we never grasp what about Charlotte would make Teddy want to throw his life away.   Sure, she's alluring, but she remains mostly a cipher and no one we care much about.  We also don't understand why she would want to hook up with a schlub like Teddy either, since he's obviously a lightweight goof.

Wilder was not as adept at directing as he was at writing and as a brilliant comic actor, at least based on this movie.  Wilder normally plays likable, if not a bit off-center, characters.  Teddy only builds goodwill because Wilder is playing him, but we aren't much moved by his plight.   If his worst dilemma in life is that he has a loving family, a good job, a nice home, great friends, and he's going through hell to obtain a side piece, then we should all have his problems.