REDBELT

Directed by David Mamet. Starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, Alice Braga, Emily Mortimer, Tim Allen, Joe Mantegna, Rodrigo Santori, Ricky Jay, Rebecca Pidgeon 15A cert, lim release, 98 min
Photograph: The Irish Times

THE PROSPECT of David Mamet making a martial arts movie may have seemed as unlikely as a James Ivory picture populated by rap singers and drug dealers, or Quentin Tarantino directing an Umberto Eco adaptation.

Then again, Mamet's movies have been preoccupied with the games people play, although they are usually mind games devised for elaborate confidence tricks.

The hero of Mamet's Redbelt is the personification of purity, a principled man whose concern for others borders on the saintly. Mike Terry (Chiwetel Ejiofor) runs a jiu-jitsu academy in Los Angeles where he is the instructor. True to Mamet form, his lessons prioritise mind games - tactics, psychology, self-control - over physical prowess. He insists that he doesn't train his clients to fight. "No, I train people to prevail," he says solemnly.

Mike's academy is strapped for cash, which he could make in the competitive arena he disdains. "Competition is weakening," he intones gravely. Nevertheless, regular moviegoers will suspect that Mike may well end up in the ring before the closing credits roll. The route to that resolution is convoluted and turns increasingly preposterous.

A nervy lawyer (Emily Mortimer) accidentally triggers a gun and smashes the glass frontage of Mike's academy, and soon she's taking lessons from him and de-stressing. A chance encounter with a Hollywood movie star (Tim Allen, giving the Santa Clause films a welcome rest) leads to Mike being hired as a consultant on his new Desert Storm picture, Perimeter Mark . And Mamet regular Ricky Jay turns up as a sly promoter hyping up a fight tournament.

For those of us who thought the black belt was the highest achievement in martial arts, the title of Redbelt cues the information that there is a further echelon, held by just one person at any given time. As we ponder if Mike just might be its next recipient, there is ample time to admire Ejiofor as the gifted English actor yet again transcends his material.

Redbelt features almost as many coincidences in under 100 minutes than in an entire series of a soap opera. While the dialogue is infused with Mamet's trademark felicity for language, Mike is such a philosophical creation, such a font of wisdom and sage nuggets, that one expects Confucius to get a credit on the screenplay.

© 2008 The Irish Times

This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times