Red Wind (1991)

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Blistering performances.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Red Wind is an unusual, artistic movie that premiered on TV in 1991. Lisa Hartman stars as Kris, a psychotherapist who inadvertently and naively allows a new patient, Lila, to intrude into her personal life. Her husband abuses her, she tells Kris. Kris finds Lila's behavior both intriguing and disturbing, and eventually she becomes entangled with her in a dangerous situation.Kris becomes sexually involved with Charlie (played by Philip Casnoff), a sadomasochistic detective. They have an unhealthy relationship, but Kris finds herself torn between her attraction for him and her gut instinct that tells her to end the relationship. This, combined with the stress of the situation with Lila, sends Kris into a downward spiral. There are many plot twists and the climax is shocking and one I did not expect.Lisa Hartman and Philip Casnoff make this movie great. The Miami location adds the right atmosphere to the film, and the score is effective. Look for the nightclub scene where Lisa Hartman has few lines but conveys perfectly her character's transition into a different lifestyle unknown to her. Excellent movie. It airs occasionally on Lifetime Movie Network.

I've seen some pretty bad movies but I have to say this one was ridiculous. I couldn't sleep one night & there were few choices at 2AM so I started watching this movie on LMC because I had never seen it. The plot was absurd-I've never seen a movie with a sillier plot. First of all, even someone with limited vision could see right away that either "Lila" was a transvestite or it was her husband dressed up like a woman. That was SO obvious from the beginning. And then when you find out the reason for the movie's title, oh boy you're in for a real treat. I know LMC shows quite a few, shall we say less than entertaining movies, but this one is really bad. It did serve one purpose, however. It put me right to sleep. Don't waste your time.

Lisa Hartman is cast here as Kris Morrow, Miami-based psychotherapist whose specialty, abusive sexual relationships, brings her into contact with Lila, a patient whose revelations emphasizing the sado-masochistic nature of her marriage, unsettle Kris to a level jeopardizing a doctor-patient association. When Kris becomes obsessed with her new lover, Charley Lapidus (Philip Casnoff), to a degree that she believes will interfere with her ability to treat Lila, she requests that an alternate therapist (and former lover of Kris), Victor Lange (Christopher McDonald), take over the case, leading to a situation that causes Victor to harbour suspicions of Lapidus, a private investigator searching for Lila, who may have murdered her spouse. This is rather a bit of a tangle, but there is yet more trouble in sight when Lila does in fact confess to Kris that she is indeed a murderess, and additionally enamoured of Kris who is also attempting to locate the increasingly evasive woman before the police can do so. That excellent player Tom Noonan produces and scripts this film, but his writing talent must be ranked below his skill as an actor since his plot is riddled with weaknesses in logic and character development, not lessened by continuity flaws that increase as the story moves along. The cast performs well together and Hartman is vividly appealing in her erratically structured role, with Casnoff and McDonald giving solid performances, but there is no saving a film that steadily declines into a patently silly and predictable affair. There is another positive contribution that shall be noted: splendidly creative effort with camera and lighting from cinematographer Bernd Heinl and his crew, whose compositions are consistently inventive and, despite being in service to an inferior production, they provide pleasures independent of the hackneyed scenario.