Redbelt

Jim Schembri, Reviewer
August 15, 2008

The film cooks nicely for about 40 minutes before setting up conflicts it does not resolve.

Redbelt.

Genre: Action
Run Time: 99 minutes
Rated: M
Country: United States
Director: David Mamet
Rating: stars-1half

In this carelessly plotted tangle of a movie, a martial arts teacher (Chiwetel Ejiofor) becomes embroiled in an escalating web of lies and double dealing when he steps in to help a film actor (Tim Allen) out during a bar fight. The film cooks nicely for about 40 minutes before setting up conflicts it does not resolve. Despite his reputation as an exacting, literate writer for stage and screen, David Mamet (Spartan, Heist, Oleanna) has yet to prove himself a good director, and Redbelt simply doesn't coalesce in its final reel the way he knows it should. Mamet has written many eloquent essays about the principles of story, but too often has trouble applying them to his own works.

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