Movie Review - 'Redbelt'

Redbelt

Starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, Tim Allen, and Emily Mortimer
Directed by David Mamet
Rated R

David Mamet is a lot of things. He's an exceptional dramatic writer. He's unique. He's an unquestioned master of profanity. But he's never been much of a filmmaker.

Mamet, the dramatist with two Tony nominations and two Oscar nominations for his scripts, has made a handful of movies over the years - The Spanish Prisoner, Oleanna, Heist, State and Main, Spartan - but he's usually better off just as a writer. Witness Glengarry Glen Ross or Wag the Dog.

There just never seems to be much of a counterbalance to all the Mamet when he writes and directs. And a little David Mamet can go a long way, even when he's in his element.

Suffice it to say, Redbelt will not be one of history's great films. The longer it lasted, the less I knew what the hell it was all about and the less connection I felt it had with any sort of reality.

Mike Terry (Chiwetel Ejiofor) is a martial arts instructor who, it seems, is a little too trusting. He's having trouble making the rent at his dojo because some students haven't paid, he sees the good in even some very bad people, and he genuinely believes that people, if you treat them fairly, will do so in return. Oddly enough, for a man who teaches that there is an escape for any hold, he sure does keep himself at a disadvantage.

Ejiofor, as always, is very good here. The rest of the film, in which one con begets another con begets another con until you don't know how far up the chain of characters it goes and why they bothered conning a rather ordinary guy just trying to eke out a living.

There's an action star and his manager (Tim Allen and Joe Mantegna...weird), who hire Terry to work as a fight coordinator on their latest film after Terry came to the aid of the movie star in a bar fight, there's a mixed martial arts promoter (Ricky Jay), who steals Terry's blueprint for a tournament fighting style, and then there are some personal betrayals that Terry suffers as well, and none of them seem logical or even necessary.

There is resolution in Redbelt, which actually adds to the confusion. I know there's a good storyteller in here somewhere and maybe even a good story, but you can't see the forest for the trees.

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