The samurai way doesn't adapt well to this current wish-fulfillment culture, and the last person you would expect to be able to refine that genre of film for the modern era would be David Mamet, he of the quick-punch crazy-cadence dialog and streetwise cool-dickery. Jim Jarmusch and his Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, certainly, but Mamet seems like a stretch. Yet that's what happens with Redbelt, a standard martial arts movie with all the normal beats spun around a bit and sprinkled with elements of the original Rocky (you know, the good one).
Chiwetel Ejiofor is magnetic as Mike Terry, a self-defense instructor dedicated to the pure principles of ju-jitsu - he doesn't teach people to fight, he teaches people "to prevail." Yet he and his wife Sondra (Alice Braga) are struggling to cover their small business expenses. When a strung out woman (Emily Mortimer) causes some property damage to his place and conflicts Terry's best student, police officer Joe Ryan (Max Martini), the trouble only worsens. Until a chance meeting with movie star Chet Frank (a surprisingly natural Tim Allen), where Terry saves him from a beatdown in a barfight. While Frank and his manager (Joe Mantegna) seem to be the answer to their problems, the ensuing events start a downward spiral that bottoms out fatally, forcing Terry to cheapen himself by entering an ultimate fighting tournament for money he desperately needs. Then, every once in a while, Ricky Jay, seeming very worse-for-wear, shows up to cuss in a weird cadence to remind you that this is Mamet.
Regrettably, Mamet still insists on casting Rebecca Pidgeon, who really should know how to deliver his dialog by now, considering she's married to the man. Thankfully, she's only got one scene, so she doesn't drag the film down like she did with The Spanish Prisoner - and it's hard to drag down a film with both Steve Martin and Campbell Scott.
The corrupt tournament experience is what brings home the Rocky notion, as in a defeat can be a victory on principle. By the time Terry forces his way into his final confrontation, he's been shattered in every way a man can be shattered, but still is determined to prevail. It hits many of the expected beats of a martial arts movie - the peaceful man forced by circumstances to combat all comers for the sake of honor and righteousness - but it's much more a drama than it is a fight movie. When the coincidences get a little too contrived, it doesn't matter, because Ejiofor is just that compelling as the abused man clinging to his beliefs when being browbeaten to compromise them at every turn.
Mike Terry tells his students to "insist on the moves" when applying a hold. Chiwetel Ejiofor's performance insists on this movie.
