PERHAPS one of the most impressive things about "Red Corner" is the set. As the camera pans across Tiananmen Square with its line of goose-stepping soldiers, I was looking for the giveaway telegraph poles, the incongruous objects, which would tell me that this was not Beijing, China. There wern't any. But when a black Merc pulled up to the square and a steel-haired Richard Gere peered enigmatically above the electric window, flinching vaguely as a close circuit camera swung round on him, the doubt lifted. Gere is personna non-grata in China because of his support for Tibet.

So the film was shot in LA. With characteristic thoroughness Hollywood have recreated a China that is more Chinese than the original could ever be.

So what's Richard Gere doing in Holly-China? He plays Jack Moore, an attorney and a sophisticated hustler for an entertainment conglomerate that specialises in flogging unsophisticated tits'n'arse programmes. He virtually closes the first Chinese satelite link deal, persuading the censors not to block the programming with an unconvincing argument which includes a quotation from Chairman Mao. Pushover.

But Jack's fortunes change suddenly when a model he is sleeping with is murdered. Everything points to him. Naturally, he is convinced that he hasn't done the foul deed, but, by Chinese law, he only has a week to prove it. Then it is a bullet in the head, old chum.

Thus starts a lengthy Kafkaesque prison and court room saga, where the hapless Jack is abused physically and psychologically. The Chinese legal system is revealed to be absurd and unjust. Gere is considered guilty before tried and although he proclaims his innocence, even his defence advocate, Shen Yuelin (Bai Ling) will not initially defend him, telling him in China it is better to admit his guilt and he will receive leniency. But Jack, as he keeps telling himself, is an American citizen. He expects justice the American way. The Chinese judicial system on the other hand is depicted as corrupt, inconsistent, secretive, and ruled by paranoia and fear.

As a whodunnit this is a shambles. There are so many flaws that it is not worth talking about. As political comment it has some powerful moments. The quietly-spoken, waif-like Bai Ling, in particular, has a fascinating screen presence. She manages to be so potent and humble at once.

Richard Gere, on the other hand, is star quality. Even when stripped naked and shoved in a concrete cell you know the hairstylist is hovering just out of shot. Gere is best at outrage and anger, and the action man chase. You don't get the sense he has the depth of experience to draw on for this role.