Review of Redbelt (2008) by Daniel K — 24 Nov 2008

Redbelt teeters on the edge of true greatness, or at least that's how I feel after the first viewing. I do think it is a masterpiece, but it has such potential I still believe it could be improved upon.

It's a tragic noir fighting film. It is also incredibly contained. I can't think of the last film I've seen that was so unconcerned with the world outside the frame; and the frame is so intimate in scope.

Minus a few words here and there, one could easily mistake this city for just about another other metropolis. The funny thing is that, at least now that I think back on the film, the film is so LA and so Hollywood it's unbelievable.

There is obviously some cynicism here on the part of Mamet concerning the film industry and the world in general. It is essentially Mike Terry, and his academy members, versus the world. It is about this man's story and the tragedy of his world.

There is a brief ray of sunshine in his world in the first act when everything seems to be clicking, but only an idiot would believe it would last. Mamet's genius here is to take a fairly complex plot involving a number of characters and specific plot points and manage to keep it streamlined and simple by focusing the camera and the emotions into something that seems as sharp and defined as a laser beam at times.

The casting is superb. Even Tim Allen fits nicely here. Ejiofor gives a flawless performance. He mirrors the picture as a whole in that his character is incredibly controlled. Mortimer also gives knockout performance.

Her character definitely surprised me on more than one occasion. She takes a journey I did not even remotely foresee based off our introduction to her as she searches frantically for a pharmacy. Mamet has taken us into a fascinating world that I've a glimpse of through Army Combatives training, which is simply Brazilian Juijitsu.

MMA is a world that could stand having more films made about it, but I guarantee you none will come remotely close to this in terms of quality. Mamet has packed so much style and story into this compact film one can't quite believe it when it ends.

One almost forgets that one just saw an inspiring story about a man that will not compromise his principles and ends up succeeding. I almost want to watch it again immediately. This is probably because it takes the best elements of noir and westerns, my two favorite old Hollywood genres, and turns it into something fresh and vital.

This point could obviously be argued endlessly, because in another sense it is simply a pure fight film, which could be seen as a genre in itself; and of course the western is the samurai is the western is the tragedy is the noir is the the fight is the western, etc.

As Alice Braga's character says, the wheel comes full circle. It's simply a good against bad film that doesn't end quite how one expects. The conclusion of the film was far, far better the second time around simply because I wasn't terrified that there would be a ridiculously cliched speech coming.

As the film started to wrap up during my first viewing I simply couldn't imagine any speech for Ejiofor that would add anything to the film. Thus, I was expecting to be disappointed soon and couldn't fully enjoy the closing scenes the first time.

Obviously, I didn't have the same problem during the second viewing. This is a film that increases in quality with multiple viewings, but also sadly seems to get shorter.