The Man with One Red Shoe Movie Review

Richard, a hapless orchestra violinist played by A-lister-in-waiting Tom Hanks, unwittingly and unknowingly becomes a focus of governmental intrigue in this clever remake. When a deputy director at the CIA falsely identifies Richard as a man with helpful information, a rival faction at the Agency tries to infiltrate his life. While a bumbling duo of agents work surveillance, a sexy blond spy (Lori Singer) attempts to seduce Richard to get inside his head, but instead gets her hair stuck in his zipper. Meanwhile, an intelligence team led by Dabney Coleman deconstructs Richard’s mundane life in a desperate attempt to decipher what he knows.

Red Shoe is a remake of the French film Le Grand Blond Avec une Chaussure Noire (“The Blond Man with One Black Shoe”), which was a commentary on the operations of the Secret Service in a country that values its privacy. The American version is more an adult slapstick than the satire on Cold War excesses it occasionally portends to be, but it still works as a comedy with an unusually twisty plot.

Director Stan Dragoti had some success in the Reagan years with quirky, mainstream comedies, including the smash hit Mr. Mom. In Red Shoe he demonstrates an adept touch at story-weaving and squeezing hearty amusement – if not big laughs – from preposterous situations.