Mike Terry (Chiwetel Ejiofor) does not believe in competition. One of Los Angeles’ best Jiu-jitsu teachers, he’s also one of the city’s best kept secrets and least successful business owners. And while he’s trained some of the police department’s finest in the arts of self defense and security, due to his almost belligerent pursuit of invisibility people aren’t exactly beating down his door to sign up for lessons.

Tim Allen and Chiwetel Ejiofor in Sony Pictures Classics' Redbelt

Without warning, Mike’s seemingly peaceful life is suddenly upended by a series of events almost too absurd to be believed. It all begins when timid lawyer Laura Black (Emily Mortimer) walks into the school and accidentally discharges off-duty officer Joe Collin’s (Max Martin) firearm resulting in a broken window and a lot of frayed nerves. Next thing he knows, the kung-fu master finds himself in a world populated by big-time movie stars (Tim Allen), Hollywood power-players (Joe Mantegna), underworld fight promoters (Ricky Jay) and smooth-talking loan sharks (David Paymer) all with agendas in direct opposition the fighter’s most resolute beliefs.

Faced with mounting debts, a disgruntled wife (Alice Braga) and on the verge of losing his school (and, even more important, his much-admired reputation), this modern day samurai is pressured to do the one thing he’s always refused to do. Mike must climb into the ring and fight, not for his life, not to prove his skill, but for money. But with his honor at stake and his beliefs in question, this wily artist of fist and fury has one more trick up his sleeve, and if those pulling the strings aren’t careful then this man with everything to lost might just cut them while the whole sporting world watches.

Acclaimed writer-director David Mamet has a lot on his mind with his latest effort Redbelt. Like State and Main he targets Hollywood and skewers without mercy. Like Heist he crafts an aggressively visceral thriller unafraid to paint outside the lines. Finally, like House of Games the con is on and trying to figure out which way is up and the worm will ultimately turn is all part of the intricately twisty puzzle.

It’s all unfortunately a little bit more then one 90-plus minute movie can handle, especially after you throw in the unabashedly stolid Rocky elements which tend to weigh things down. The thing is, up until the final act the talented filmmaker with the signature rat-a-tat-tat dialogue style almost pulls it off. Because for as all over the map as this thing is, the film is still constantly engaging and never boring, all of it anchored by a performance by Ejiofor (so good in Dirty Pretty Things and Serenity to name only two) that might just be one of his absolute best.

Which makes it all the more depressing when is all finally comes tumbling down. The final scenes border on ludicrous, a director of Mamet’s caliber supposed to know better and be above staging scenes as laughably silly and inert as these are. In fact, I’m almost at a loss for words because not only is the climactic confrontation completely unbelievable, it is also so poorly edited and shot that finding anything to praise is effectively impossible.

Which is too bad, because when all is finally said and done all the actors (including Allen, whom you’d have thought on the surface would have been utterly out of his element) here deserve much better then what they eventually get. There are some striking moments of harsh intimacy which caught me completely off guard, a scene between Ejiofor and Mortimer in Mike’s empty school so honest and uncompromising it totally blew me away. But this is only one scene of many, everyone in the cast working in such beautiful symmetry there might not be a better ensemble assembled in one place for the remainder of this year. 

It’s unfortunately not enough, the ultimate destination not near as interesting as many of the individual steps it took to get there. For all Mamet’s slight of hand and misdirection, Redbelt ends up being much ado about almost nothing, this fight’s ultimate losers the paying audience who invested their time and monies stepping into the theater to see it.

Film Rating: êê1/2  (out of 4)

Additional Links:

-  Interview with actor Chiwetel Ejiofor by Sara Michelle Fetters
-  Redbelt Theatrical Trailer