Redbelt Details

[Highly rated reviewer]

Redbelt

When I first heard about Redbelt I did a double take. It seemed like such an odd fit: David Mamet’s martial arts movie, really? While it’s neither the best martial arts movie I’ve seen, nor the best David Mamet movie I’ve seen it is an interesting, and occasionally outstanding, example of each.

Mamet’s name, and his reputation and history as a writer, is enough to attract a stellar cast to play alongside members of his stock company whenever he makes a film, and Redbelt has a truly outstanding cast. Chiwetel Ejiofor impresses in the leading role of Mike Terry, a Jiu-Jitsu instructor who, for reasons I won’t reveal, finds himself having to break his cardinal rule as a fighter, and fight in a competition. Ejiofor seems to be doing the vast majority of the fighting himself and while moves seem quite basic the choreography is well put together and the length of the takes and the combinations of moves are pretty impressive, but Ejiofor’s strength is the drama and he plays it flawlessly, from an American accent so good that you’d barely believe he’s British to hitting every beat of Mamet’s always intricate dialogue just right. Another British actor, again playing an American, also impresses in a smaller role. Emily Mortimer is quickly growing into one of the most reliable character actresses around and here she plays a complex role, with a lot of different facets and an extreme arc absolutely convincingly with only a few rather brief scenes to do it.

Among the rest of the supporting cast there are (too) small parts for Mamet regulars Rebecca Pidgeon, Ricky Jay and David Paymer and excellent turns from Brazillian actress Alice Braga as Ejiofor’s wife and Max Martini as his star pupil. The real surprise, though, is Tim Allen. Allen is usually found slumming, but has previously shown that with a good script (the Toy Story films, Galaxy Quest) he’s an effective comic lead. Here, though, he’s got an entirely dramatic role as action movie star Chet Frank, and he absolutely eats it up, grabbing it with a zeal that suggests he knows exactly how good a chance this is to prove that he really can act. Now if he’d only stop making crap like The Santa Clause and seek out more roles like this.

Mamet’s screenplay is talkier than you’d expect for a martial arts movie, but truly it’s the talk that is the film’s most compelling aspect. As ever with Mamet it overflows with quotable dialogue (We gotta deal. What good's a deal if no one's making any money?) and in typical fashion things that seem incidental end up paying off in ways you don’t expect, as in a beautiful second act sequence here, which draws a morass of dangling threads together to set up the final conflict.

It is, sadly, that final conflict that ends up making Redbelt somewhat less than the sum of its parts. The last act is very familiar, and it’s done with little panache, particularly when Mamet, the master of dialogue, wraps proceedings up with a (hopelessly cliché) silent sequence. Worse is that the final fight isn’t very dynamic or exciting and that several moments that promise rather more drama are thrown away, never to be seen.

Still, for three quarters of its running time Redbelt is vintage Mamet, with a nice side order of kicking.

Red Belter

The story is about a martial arts instructor who runs his own dojo and lives a calm peaceful life until one night he saves the life of an action movie star (played by Tim Allen). From this point he gets showered with gifts and favours that later transpire to be a set up to get him to compete for the much coveted red belt under extreme rules. This was a sensible action film that is far from action packed but easy viewing. Its a mix of best of the best and karate kid.

Worth a watch.