David Mamet seems a peculiar choice to write and direct a mixed martial arts movie.
And Chiwetel Ejiofor is no Jean-Claude Van Damme.
Yet “Redbelt” marries the two disparate talents in a way that reboots the clunky genre – for a spell.
The drama knocks itself silly twisting narrative threads into a manipulative knot, wasting the chance to give the sport a fresh perspective.
Ejiofor stars as Mike, a martial arts instructor who considers the sport too pure for competition. He’s content training his small cadre of students even if it means just barely scraping by.
His tranquility ends when a distraught woman (Emily Mortimer) enters his studio and accidentally fires off a shot that shatters his storefront window – it’s a long story, and not well told.
The chance encounter sparks a series of events which threaten Mike’s moral posture. One of his students can’t pay his bills. His wife (Alice Braga) is frustrated by how little concern Mike pays to their bottom line. A popular movie star (Tim Allen) invites Mike to co-produce his latest film as a thank you for coming to his aid in a bar fight.
Ejiofor isn’t a physically imposing actor, but he brings a steady calm – and sense of danger – that’s essential to the story. But Mamet, working from one of his least intriguing scripts, feels compelled to drag us kicking and screaming into Mike’s corner.
“Redbelt” touches on issues of patience, security and the codes warriors and peaceniks alike live by, but the more trouble Mike runs into the less we’re left to care. Rather than tease these themes out, Mamet bundles them together into a stew of stale, incredulous sequences which steer the film toward a predictable resolution.
“Redbelt” delivers some decidedly deglamorized action sequences, but it’s really the story of a man forced to confront his own standards. Ultimately, it’s just another punch-kick-punch affair, one that doesn’t have the crackling action or delirious battles to make up for its flaws.
(Photo: Chiwetel Ejiofor stars as a conflicted martial arts instructor in “Redbelt,” written and directed by David Mamet.)
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I actually really enjoyed this film… here’s a little of what I wrote after seeing it in the theater, basically summing up why I feel it is worthwhile.
Studying a martial art is more than learning physical moves to apply during a fight. There are many components to martial arts, including mental and spiritual components often overlooked in these types of movies. “Redbelt” does not neglect these elements in the practice of martial arts.
Often the current day movie hero or heroine has a laundry list of vices: drinking, cheating, lying, womanizing, etc. We are supposed to like them for their redeeming qualities. We are supposed to like them because we see our own weaknesses in the character.
Refreshingly, the hero in “Redbelt” is a true hero, the type of person I would want my children to look up to. He is the kind of man who values honor above all else, a trait quickly disappearing in our culture.