This week I am happy to report I saw a good film...and why wouldn't it be? It's a Mamet!
Redbelt is an odd film in that it has two very distinct genres being spliced together, and believe it or not, it works. David Mamet is one of those writers who knows how to craft a tale and make the dialogue sing while being effective. He wastes no words and makes his characters a sharp as their words. And what would a Mamet tale be if there wasn't a twist, graft, or con?
Mike Terry is a Jiu-Jitsu teacher who is struggling to keep his business afloat, and a chance encounter in his dojo looks to make matters worse. Trying to help one of his pupils who is having troubles of his own under the employ of Terry's brother-in-law, he befriends an aging action star and it looks as though there'll be a reversal of fortune. Like any Mamet movie (or play), everybody has an angle and nobody is exactly what they seem up front.
Mamet himself is a MMA practitioner, so that aspect is represented accurately and not just as color for some other story. It's cool to see his tales of deception applied to a more action oriented film, and to take the fight genre and give it more depth. I especially liked Chiwetel Ejiofor as Mike Terry, with his samurai like discipline and determination even in the overwhelming face of adversity. And Mamet put his wife Rebecca Pidgeon in as well (and as usual), whose strange, flat affect when speaking was, still, annoying (at least her roll was small).
Great combination movie for people looking for something different and very entertaining!
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