Film Review - ‘Redbelt’
Centurion sent us another review - this time for the mixed martial-arts flick Redbelt. Gotta admit, I’m really curious about this one - I dig MMA and David Mamet in equal measure, so a David Mamet flick about MMA is right up my alley…and according to Centurion, it’s actually pretty good…
So…without further ado…
The movie Redbelt snuck up on me. Until recently is was nothing more than an obscure poster on the theater wall; one I walked past several times to and from Iron Man. The only thing that got me to take a closer look it at all was that the poster featured martial arts (which is a neon sign that ways “LOOK HERE!” for anyone with a minimum amount of testosterone), and the fact that it featured the actor Chiwetel Ejiofor. While I cannot even begin to pronounce his name correctly, I’ve seen his performances in supporting roles in Inside Man, Amercian Gangster and as the cold-blooded villain in Serenity. I was curious to see how he’d handle a leading role, but I didn’t know if my curiosity was worth shelling out money on a ticket for.
I promptly forgot all about it until yesterday, when I stumbled over the fact that it had hit the threaters while figuring out what I wanted to do with my Friday night. I decided to poke around and see what Rotten Tomatoes had to say about it, as they are my first line of defense when it comes to wasting my time and money on utter crap. Not only was I surprised to see mainly positive reviews, it was there that I also learned that the movie was written and directed by David Mamet.
For anyone unfamiliar with Mamet, he’s primarily noted for his playwriting and for his unusual style of dialog. To put it simply, he writes dialog that actually reflects the way people speak to each other, especially in tense situations. Unlike most pre-packaged Hollywood dialog, Mamet’s characters will trail off mid-sentence as an idea occurs to them, they’ll interrupt each other, and often their dialog will overlap. Reading an excerpt of his dialog isn’t easy, and I can’t imagine being an actor and sitting down to actually learn the lines when you’ve spent your career being spoon fed neat, clean sentences. The end result for those who can pull it off however, is usually fantastic, and far more “natural” than what you’ll hear in most plays or movies. The idea of Mamet doing a martial arts action flick seemed just odd enough for me to bite. I had to see it just to satisfy my own curiosity.
I hate plot spoilers, but the basics of the story are simple enough on the surface. The official plot summary from the film’s producers is spot on and pretty straight forward.
“Set in the west-side of Los Angeles fight world, a world inhabited by bouncers, cage- fighters, cops and special forces types, Redbelt, is the story of Mike Terry (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a Jiu-Jitsu teacher who has avoided the prize fighting circuit, choosing instead to pursue an honorable life by operating a self-defense studio with a samurai’s code.
Terry and his wife Sondra (Alice Braga), struggle to keep the business running to make ends meet. An accident on a dark, rainy night at the Academy between an off duty officer (Max Martini) and a distraught lawyer (Emily Mortimer) puts in motion a series of events that will change Terry’s life dramatically introducing him to a world of promoters (Ricky Jay, Joe Mantegna) and movie star Chet Frank (Tim Allen). Faced with this, in order to pay off his debts and regain his honor, Terry must step into the ring for the first time in his life. –© Sony Pictures Classics”
As I sat down to watch Redbelt, I was pretty much prepared for a Rocky knock-off with mixed martial arts instead of boxing. What I got instead was a drama about a man trying to hold onto ideals such as integrity, honor, loyalty and compassion while constantly being confronted with easy options to sell out his principals. I won’t say the movie is perfect. Some of the plot events are pretty predictable and almost cliche, but they are all grounded just enough by the dialog and performances to seem plausible. True to form, Mamet’s writing and directing did not disappoint. I came in expecting that. What I didn’t expect was how powerful some of the scenes would be where Mamet chose to not let the audience actually hear the dialog at all. Those moments when the actors are just far enough away to be out of hearing range were still great, and perhaps they were made even more so because you couldn’t hear what was going on, you just had to watch the events and the outcome.
When the final scene went dark and the credits rolled I was just stunned by how good the movie actually was and how it all ended. Summer is upon us, and there are tons of high budget Hollywood blockbusters coming out or on the horizon. That said, if you get the chance between all of those to sit down and watch a simple, good movie, then I’d highly suggest Redbelt. It did not disappoint.
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