Redbelt (2008)

"...a thinking-man's Rocky.  Chris Farnsworth, E! Online
"...a compelling drama about the world of martial arts fighting.  Claudia Puig, USA Today
"...a typically strong brew of manliness and mystique.  Kyle Smith, New York Post

Editor's Note Actor Chiwetel Ejiofor follows his turn in AMERICAN GANGSTER by taking the lead role in this thoughtful fight movie from writer/director David Mamet. Ejiofor plays Mike Terry, a man who runs his own Jiu-jitsu studio in Los Angeles. Terry's business is failing, causing tension between him and his wife, Sondra (Alice Braga). But their lives change drastically when Terry is compelled to come to the aid of an actor, Chet Frank (Tim Allen), during a bar fight. Frank befriends Terry and invites him to come and work as a consultant on a movie he is shooting. Just as Terry's fortunes seem to be changing, he finds himself caught up in a deceitful plan that has been carefully hatched by Frank's devious agent (who is played by Mamet regular Joe Mantegna). With his debts piling up, Terry decides to go against all his instincts and enter the competitive fighting world, where he stands to win a huge cash prize. But the good-natured fighter is in for a shock when he gets a close-up glimpse of the corruption that runs rife throughout the sport. REDBELT is full of the usual plot twists and fine performances that mark any Mamet movie. It's fascinating to watch the director draw on his longstanding passion for Jiu-jitsu to fill out the storyline, and Ejiofor does a convincing job as a man who draws on the discipline of the sport to stay calm during some testing times. As with many Mamet films, a series of cons are liberally sprinkled throughout the script, calling on viewers to remain alert as each strand of the storyline slowly unravels. The bulk of the movie is conversational, shying away from the action sequences that mark most fight movies, and making REDBELT an unusual and invaluable addition to the genre.

	Ricky Jay
	Emily Mortimer
	Rebecca Pidgeon
	Tim Allen
	John Machado
	Rodrigo Santoro
	Joe Mantegna
	David Paymer
	Chjwetel Ejiofor
	Alice Braga
	Ray Mancini
	David Mamet - Screenwriter
	Robert Elswit - Director of Photography
	Stephen Endelman - Composer
	Chrisann Verges - Producer
	Rebecca Pidgeon - Music
	David Mamet - Director

Rolling Stone
3 stars out of 4 -- "Ejiofor confirms his status as one of the best actors anywhere....The resonant stillness he brings to REDBELT pulls you in....Mamet is on his game, and that is a sight to see." 04/25/2008 p.91

USA Today
3 stars out of 4 -- "Anchored by a powerful and nuanced performance by Chiwetel Ejiofor, Mamet's latest writing and directing effort is a compelling drama about the world of martial arts fighting." 05/02/2008

Los Angeles Times
"[T]ricky and engrossing....A contemporary noir with a samurai movie interior, as sincere, plaintive and strangely optimistic a movie as he's made." 05/02/2008

New York Times
"[T]he film's visual moderation, contained scale and ambition keep it well tethered. It's a tight film purely if not simply, which of course also means it's about he struggle to live." 05/02/2008

Entertainment Weekly
"Mamet regulars Ricky Jay and Joe Mantegna blend well with Mamet newbie Tim Allen, a treat as a spoiled-rotten aging Hollywood action star." -- Grade: B 05/09/2008 p.49

Premiere
3 stars out of 4 -- "REDBELT offers a good deal of Mametian red meat while also trying to break out of some of the strictures that Mamet's erected around his own work." 04/28/2008

Total Film
4 stars out of 5 -- "Ejiofor is superbly centered and authoritative, completely in command of Mamet's mantra-like dialogue." 11/01/2008 p.62

Empire
4 stars out of 5 -- "Standing out in a cracking cast, Ejiofor is electric as a man being slowly driven to breaking point...it's enthralling and moving, proving that, even for David Mamet, actions can speak louder than words." 11/01/2008 p.66

The Onion A.V. Club 9 of 10
The film unravels a bit in the last few moments, amid unanswered story questions and a simplistic climax, but until that moment, Redbelt is Mamet's richest film of the decade. Having spent five years studying jujitsu himself, he's well familiar with the varying types of people who take up martial arts, and the complicated, insular scenes they create. His story is as steeped in the many mentalities of fighting as his past standout works were steeped in the language of police precincts and con artists. And while the physical combat is minimal?this is a character drama, not a traditional martial-arts film?the emotional battles are immense. Abandoning much of his familiar, artificially mannered dialogue, Mamet brings them across with a narrative directness that belies the complicated story, and Ejiofor adds in a riveting determination and strength. There's a sense that they both care immensely about what they're doing here, and that, above everything else, makes Redbelt stand out from Mamet's past experiments, games, and genre exercises. - Tasha Robinson