Redbelt

My admiration for David Mamet goes way back to my days as a drama student in the early eighties when he was the hot young playwright on the scene. As I look over his credits on the IMDB I see that I’ve seen a good portion of his films as a director: House of Games, Things Change, Homicide, The Spanish Prisoner, Heist, State and Main, and The Winslow Boy. None of these films would qualify as blockbusters–what they mostly have in common is a striving for integrity and authencity (and many of them are concerned with con men).

When I saw ads for Redbelt I was surprised to hear that Mamet was the writer and director, because it looked like a conventional martial arts picture. With Mamet’s name on it I was intrigued and took a look at it, and thus it is the first time I willingly saw a film with Tim Allen in it.

After seeing the film it’s easy to see what Mamet was going for–his main character embodies much of what has characterized Mamet’s career as a director. Chiwetel Ejiofor plays an instructor of ju-jitsu who is a purist, unconcerned with the glitz of the fast-growing mixed martial arts world. He follows the code of the art, like a modern-day samurai. I know practically nothing about ju-jitsu or mixed martial arts, so it was interesting to take a tour of those worlds. Mamet must have been lured by the concept of the integrity of the sport butting heads with the gaudy media show, much like the sordid world of boxing, that it’s become.

Ejiofor’s character, Mike Terry, is a great creation. He teaches at an academy that struggles to remain afloat financially. His wife, Alice Braga, her eye on the bottom line, is losing her patience. When Ejiofor comes to the rescue of a Hollywood star (Allen) in a barfight, he is rewarded with a job as a co-producer on a war picture. But Mamet, turning a gimlet eye on Hollywood, shows that dealing with Hollywood types is like dancing with the devil, and Ejiofor finds himself in a situation where his way of life comes to a severe test.

This is a terrific picture, smartly-written and well-performed, especially by Ejiofor. At a certain point toward the end I felt my admiration ebbing, as it appeared it was going to surrender to the conventions of the sports film, but Mamet and his stand-in character had more surprises for me. The very ending was a little over the top, but satisfying.

Mamet uses many of his stock company, such as Joe Mantegna, Ricky Jay, Rebecca Pidgeon and David Paymer. He effectively uses Tim Allen, who’s probably made more bad films than anyone in recent memory. I also liked Emily Mortimer as an emotionally fragile attorney who allows herself to be tutored in the ways of ju-jitsu. But it is Ejiofor who is the emotional center of this film. Coincidentally, I happened to see the film Serenity last night, in which Ejiofor plays a villain who kicks ass with flying fists. How interesting that this actor, who was so good in Dirty Pretty Things, among other films, would also seem to be the kind of guy you’d love to have accompany you on a walk through a bad neighborhood.