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All Movie Info
Starring:
Tim Allen, Douglas Barcellos, Alice Braga, Ryan Everett Canfield, Jose Pablo Cantillo, Randy Couture, Steve DeCastro, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Vincent Guastaferro, Damon Herriman, Dan Inosanto, Ricky Jay, Bob Jennings, Jake M. Johnson, Allison Karman, Joe Mantegna, Emily Mortimer, David Paymer, Rebecca Pidgeon, Rob Reinis, Lee Ryder, Rodrigo Santoro, Daniel Cage Theodore, David Kiiskinen, Kei Hirayama, Jeffrey Addiss, Joseph Alfieri, Craig Collington Bator, Matt Cable, Cathy Cahlin Ryan, Caroline de Souza Correa, Scott Farrell, Hugh Fitzgerald, Mike Goldberg, Caroline Z. Hurley, Jess King, Jean Jacques Machado, John Machado, Renato Magno, Ray 'Boom Boom' Mancini, Max Martini, Jennifer McTamney, Marc Opitz, Emily Peck, James Ralph, Jonathan Rossetti, Tino Struckmann, Galen Tong, Erin Anne Williams, Kei Hirayama, Enson Inoue
Directed By:
David Mamet
Written By:
David Mamet
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Redbelt (2008)
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Movie Review by Jarrod 
May 14th, 2008
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'Redbelt' proves that David Mamet is much better at writing than he is at directing. This movie contains some brilliant dialogue, dialogue that is terse, poetic, and profane, yet not quite on the same level as what is to be heard in Glengarry Glen Ross, House of Games, or Spartan; Mamet knows how to create interesting, complex, and mysterious characters, and how to have them engage in intelligent, though occasionally cryptic conversations with one another, but he is less adept at actually assembling a coherent plot. 'Redbelt' suffers primarily from its lack of narrative cohesion; the story often does not make any sense, many things are not explained that well, if they are explained at all, the ending is terrible, motivations are never explored with any real depth, twists pile onto other twists, the audience simply gets lost in the whole mess, as does the main character, Mike Terry, played by that remarkable Nigerian-born English actor Chiwetel Ejiofor. His performance essentially anchors the film; he is a commanding and sympathetic presence throughout, and we can follow him through the wilderness of the story without necessarily caring how many detours we have to take to reach the end of the path. Mike owns a dojo of sorts, it is a cheap and rundown place, with a very small clientele; his most loyal customer and star pupil is a cop named Joe (Max Martini), being trained in self-defense, I guess for situations where a gun would not work and he would be forced to rely on melee combat. Mike does not earn much money; his wife, Sondra (Alice Braga) has a moderately successful business of her own, and is tired of supporting him financially. So, he is desperate for cash, which is one reason why he gets caught up in the series of events that are about to unfold; it starts rather simply with the distraught Laura (Emily Mortimer) entering Mike's studio, perceives assistance from Joe as a potential assault, grabs his gun and fires it, shattering a window in the process.
It snowballs from there; Mike helps out action star Chet Frank (Tim Allen) during a bar fight; Chet invites him over to his house and later to the set of his latest movie; Mike meets Chet's manager Jerry Weiss (Joe Mantegna), who is obviously not a person one could easily trust, and Chet's wife Zena (Rebecca Pidgeon). Try to imagine an action movie star that looks like Tim Allen. Allen drops his comic persona to provide one of his best performances in ages, a rare dramatic (and intriguingly dark) turn after those Santa Clause disasters. There is also Marty Brown (Ricky Jay), a fight promoter who encourages Mike to participate in a televised, pay-per-view battle, an opportunity that promises to net Mike a sizable profit. This is an extremely simplistic summary of what actually happens; there are a lot of deceptive developments along the way; Mike is manipulated and duped, is perhaps amazed that everyone around him is not who he or she initially seemed to be in the first place.
Conventional logic is thrown out the window, in favor of something that perhaps seems plausible only in Mamet's mind. I don't even know if he could fit all of this together; he appears to have focused too much on the dialogue that he left everything else to wither on the vine. There are a few well-crafted martial arts sequences, but this is not an action movie, and if you think it is, then I would urge you not to see it. It is an intermittently solid drama with a terrific cast; I mentioned how good Ejiofor is, with his muscled physique, deep soulful eyes, and incredibly expressive face. Mamet regulars Jay and Mantegna are also very effective.
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