Redbelt

David Mamet’s “Redbelt” takes you inside the crooked underworld of MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) in such an intellectual way that it’s easy to forget that what you’re actually experiencing is just another flashy tale of high-profile miscreants dabbling in organized depravity. No matter how much elegant brawling goes down, the faint inkling of a better, more concentrated film trying to find itself hovers over every inch of this somewhat unrealized screenplay. The only thing that keeps this propitious material from falling completely flat on its face is the fluent, Oscar-caliber performance of Chiwetel Ejiofor as Mike Terry, the ever-wise Jiu-jitsu specialist who finds himself caught in a hazardous web of brutality and fraudulence.

His soulful embodiment of the fighter’s inner spirit is at least two cuts above your typical run-of-the-mill action hero, because he always seems to be operating at a level of resolute integrity that instantly grants him a leg up on anyone he interacts with. Whether he’s lecturing his students or mingling with mobsters, the Code of Honor dictates his every move and propels him to take the moral high ground whenever confronted with a potentially harmful (to the other person, that is) situation.

Think of it as “Chicken Soup For the Jiu-jitsu Warrior’s Soul” due to the plethora of Miyagi-esque anecdotes he offers up during the most trying moments and then prepare yourself for a finale so crazily exaggerated that you can’t help but want to explore it on a more cerebral level afterwards.

Mamet’s spicy dialogue is simply some of the finest erudite insolence you’ll ever encounter and is worth the price of admission on its own. Not even the family-friendly Tim Allen could resist the opportunity to indulge in the callous vulgarity present here, so you know that has to count for something. His convincing portrayal of a cocky, oafish actor looking for trouble almost earns him a pardon for the cinematic crimes of “The Shaggy Dog” and “Zoom” (Almost).

While not perfect, the quiet passion behind this picture is enough to recommend it for those who don’t require ninety-minutes of pure hellish combat to make them feel invigorated. Strong supporting work from Joe Mantegna and Emily Mortimer coupled with searing cinematography from last year’s Oscar-winner Robert Elswit put it somewhere toward the upper half of the Summer movie mound, so if you can find it, check it out before the hype hastily drifts away.

- *** out of 4