Redbelt - Review

Director: David Mamet
Writer: David Mamet
Starring: Chiwetel Ejiofor/Emily Mortimer
Runtime: 1 hr 39 minutes

Hardcore fans of mixed martial arts won't find much to cheer about in Redbelt, because the movie isn't meant for them. David Mamet has written a movie that uses the fighting world as a backdrop for a character study of Mike Terry (Chiwetel Ejiofor). Terry is a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu instructor who does not compete for money, but teaches the mental and physical discipline of the martial art to newcomers, women, cops, kids, you name it. He loves Jiu-Jitsu, and it is as much a part of him as his right hand.

Unfortunately for Terry, not everyone regards the sport as something to be praised. For them, martial arts is about money, plain and simple. When Terry gets involved with these people, he finds out that he stands virtually alone as a man of principle, both in and out of the ring.

There's not much new in Redbelt. We've all seen sports movies where the hero is the only one with a principled spirit. The movie also uses a pressure-device which Mamet loves: money, and betrayal, and money, and betrayal. But Redbelt is a very, very well-told story, too, and Chiwetel Ejiofor is a very good actor. His eyes have such concentration, and his acting such easy nuance, that it is a pleasure to watch him work.

Redbelt shakes down like most sports movies. Terry is not a rich martial arts instructor, so when the opportunity to rub shoulders with the high and mighty presents itself, he falls into the trap. It is only later that he realizes he is getting screwed by virtually everyone around him. When that happens he has a choice to make. You know Ejiofor is right for the part because after watching the film, you can think of no one else that could have even come close.

I was leery of seeing Redbelt because I haven't liked David Mamet's films in quite a while. His last film, Spartan, left me feeling vaguely uneasy about Mamet, as if he just wasn't that good anymore.

I read a book by Mamet a while back, where he talked about acting. Mamet has always hated the Method technique. In his book, he said rehearsal should be kept to a minimum, and that actors should recite dialogue as if reading from a phone book. He said the meaning would come forth, and that "making funny faces" (acting) wasn't required.

If you've seen Spartan or The Spanish Prisoner, then you've seen this rule put into play. The characters all talk as if their mouths are made of wood and the words are made of lead. In some scenes, it seems as if there's a cue card tacked to the wall just off-camera, and the actor is reading the lines.

Mamet's stature as a writer and director lets him get away with this stuff, because we've come to believe that if we don't "get" anything the masters give us, then it must be good. I'm not so sure. Frankly, I thought The Spanish Prisoner was a cliche piece of junk, and that Mamet is a much more accomplished playwright and director than he is a screenwriter and director.

Redbelt changes my mind. Going against his own book, Mamet has directed the actors to act, and they do. Quite well, too. Because he's David Mamet, there are several cameos by name stars in the picture (Tim Allen, Joe Mantegna), and they come off fine, as do the rest of the cast. Emily Mortimer is particularly good. But really, it's Ejiofor that steals the show and makes the movie.

If you're looking for fight scenes, you won't find a lot of them here. This movie uses Jiu-Jitsu to compliment the struggles in Mike Terry's life, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that except this: Redbelt might miss its audience because the trailers and previews highlight the fight scenes and make it seem like an Ultimate Fighting Rocky.

That's a shame. There's a chance that the drama crowd will skip the pic, thinking it's a sweaty sports movie, while the sports crowd will feel ripped off and smear the picture. This scenario reminds me of Clint Eastwood's A Perfect World. It couldn't decide whom to aim its marketing at, the title was weird, and it ended up missing everyone. Too bad, too, because it's one of the best pictures Eastwood ever made.

Here's what the Yahoo Movies logline has for Redbelt: "An American samurai film set in the L.A. fight world about a Jiu-Jitsu master who turned his back on prizefighting to operate a self-defense studio, but is conned by a cabal of celebs and fight promoters to enter the ring in order to regain his honor."

Um, no. Nice try. That's what the movie might seem to be about, but Redbelt doesn't come close to the Van Damme image that the logline portrays. This is why I think Redbelt is going to suffer at the box office.

Redbelt, for my money, is some of the best directing and writing David Mamet has done in years. I just hope people go and see it.

Photos: Yahoo Movies