Review: Implausible ‘Redbelt’ still worth watching

Directed by: David Mamet

Starring: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Tim Allen, Alice Braga, Emily Mortimer, Joe Mantegna, David Paymer, Ricky Jay, Max Martini, Jose Pablo Cantillo

Rated: R

David Mamet has written more than 100 films, TV episodes and plays and directed a dozen movies. His most known – and some of his best – work has usually featured some form or another of an elaborately conceived and always well-written con game.

From his first two films as a director, “House of Games” and “Things Change,” to his 1997 masterfully played “The Spanish Prisoner,” the con was always on. Even films such as “State and Main,” about a movie crew relocating to a small Vermont town, and “Glengarry Glen Ross,” which dealt with boiler-room real estate sales, had plots revolving around some sort of devious double cross.

Mamet’s latest work (he wrote and directed) employs the formula again, and this time in yet another entirely different milieu: the world of the sport known as mixed martial arts.

Had Hollywood’s powers that be thought it would sell more tickets, the marketing campaign for “Redbelt” surely would have positioned it as a kung-fu-fest action film and never mentioned Mamet. The fight scenes here are not the thrilling, over-the-top choreographed wonders of a Jackie Chan or Bruce Lee film, which is not to take anything away from that kind of movie. Viewing the fight scenes in “Redbelt” is more like watching a bar fight or a live martial arts match, which of course are conducted without any cinematic special effects.

As it happens, Mamet studied jujitsu for five years, and he seems to understand the philosophy of the discipline as much as the physical aspects.

It’s this philosophy – which to Mamet is obviously a nobility – that is the heart and soul of the tale.

Chiwetel Ejiofor is not yet a household name, but the Nigerian actor, born and raised in London, has gotten notices for his performances in the films “Kinky Boots” and “Dirty Pretty Things” and has recently garnered critical and popular acclaim as the title character in the London production of “Othello.”

In “Redbelt,” he plays Mike Terry, a Gulf War veteran who is now the owner and master instructor of a martial arts school in Los Angeles. Mike is a devout follower of the philosophy behind the purest forms of the discipline and believes the power of knowledge always trumps mere strength.

To set things up, Mamet uses a tried-and-true (but in his hands, not hackneyed) story device: Mike and the school are having money problems.

Mike’s wife, Sondra, helps out, funneling some of the profits from her own business to keep the school afloat, but she wants Mike to sign up to fight on the burgeoning professional MMA circuit. Mike can’t bring himself to do so; he feels it would be dishonorable.

But times are getting tough. And a series of seemingly unrelated events (remember, this is Mamet) occur to make times tougher.

Mike’s prized pupil, L.A. cop Joe Collins, and a distraught woman (who turns out to be a lawyer) have a completely accidental altercation at the school. Joe says that everyone just has to say, “The storm broke the front window.”

Soon after, Mike has a chance encounter with action movie star Chet Frank, played by Tim Allen, and for my money it’s the best role Allen’s ever done. Mike saves Chet’s rear end when the star is accosted at a seedy bar run by Mike’s brother-in-law.

The next day, Chet sends Mike a Rolex and a dinner invitation. They hit it off, as do Sondra and Chet’s wife. Chet wants to hire Mike as a consultant on his new picture and, after getting some great ideas from him, wants to make him a producer on the film.

The plot thickens hereafter with Chet’s agent, played by Mamet regular Joe Mantegna, and a bevy of other recognizable characters come onto the scene one by one.

The con unfolds slowly but surely, and Mike is forced to do things he doesn’t want to do. There are betrayals and a suicide, while money, power and alliances are in a constant state of flux.

If one examines the plot even just casually, it can be pointed out that there are many points that are very, very, implausible. You can spend an hour discussing why this scene, that scene, this action or that reaction doesn’t quite make sense. Forget all that.

“Redbelt” is a testament to Mamet’s power as a writer and director. Even if the audience knows things probably couldn’t really happen like this, the story remains exciting, engaging and engrossing.

And, who knows that it couldn’t happen? Truth, as they say, is stranger than fiction.

Jim Wunderle owns Wunderle Sound Services and is a Springfield freelance writer and musician. He can be reached at info@wunderlesound.com.[[In-content Ad]]