Review of Redbelt (2008) by Jon S — 01 Dec 2009

David Mamet is hit or miss for me. I loved "Wag the dog" (which he wrote) and "State and Main" (which he wrote and directed"), but I didn't care for "The Edge" (A.K.A. Anthony Hopkins Vs The Bear) and I hated "Heist" (A.K.A. Gene Hackman looks old). He writes very distinctive dialogue, which is very effective when the story is good and very tiresome when the story isn't. "Redbelt" has a good story.

With the exception of a rather contrived setup at the beginning (and to be fair, it's not so contrived after the movie has revealed some of its secrets), Mamet turns in a rock solid script, full of memorable moments and where, in true Mamet fashion, pretty much every element is connected to everything else and bound to come up again later in the story. It's not your average martial arts movie, even though at first glance that's what I'd imagine people would expect. "Redbelt" is a movie about a martial artist, and there's a slow buildup towards a major competition and a fight, but what it really is about is a good man trying to live by a simple, honorable code.

The man is played by Chiwetel Ejiofor, who seems to be great in every movie I've seen him in (from "Dirty pretty things" to "Melinda and Melinda" and "Serenity"). Here, he seems comfortingly at ease playing a guy who is more concerned with doing the right thing than anything else, much to the exasperation or puzzlement of the people around him. Everybody else in the cast (including Mamet regulars like Ricky Jay, Joe Mantegna and David Paymer, and a surprise supporting turn by Tim Allen -- yes, THAT Tim Allen) is perfect in their roles, but the movie lives and dies by Ejiofor's performance, and he does it justice. It'd be easy to get frustrated with someone so fundamentally "nice", but no, you spend an hour and a half rooting for him, waiting for the wheel to turn, and when it does, you leave the movie satisfied.

I haven't forgotten Emily Mortimer. Her character starts off obnoxious (there's that contrived setup) again, yet grows more complex and sympathetic as the story progresses. Her main scene with Ejiofor, the one where she's forced to confront her fears, is one of the high points in the movie. Now I have something other than "Match Point" to remember her by.