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<< Previous   of   Next >> (click to enlarge) Tim Allen (left) and Chiwetel Ejiofor in a scene from "Redbelt."   ADVERTISEMENT   "Redbelt" (3 stars) Cool: David Mamet directs this look at a supremely cool Jiu-jitsu teacher (Chiwetel Ejiofor, superb) who is tested by a series of crises. More philosophical than physical, this movie comes down on the side of Jiu-jitsu's moral code, as the actors ably navigate Mamet's odd, not-quite-real universe. Rated: R rating for violence, language Now showing: Alderwood Mall, Everett, Marysville, Meridian, Metro, Woodinville, Cascade Mall   CONTACT THE HERALD Melanie Munk, Features Editor munk@heraldnet.com   Published: Friday, May 9, 2008 'Redbelt': Mamet ventures ably into chopsocky genre By Robert Horton Herald Movie Critic If a lot of the early work of David Mamet was about speech -- the torrential cadences of "American Buffalo" and "Glengarry Glen Ross" -- then his new film "Redbelt" is about the body. Believe it or not, Mamet has made a martial-arts picture. And yet both approaches fit Mamet's ongoing survey of how humans behave under pressure. "Redbelt" is all about that, in its own terse way. The movie begins in the general vicinity of a Los Angeles Jiu-jitsu studio, where a respected teacher named Mike Terry (Chiwetel Ejiofor) gives lessons in the physical and spiritual aspects of the discipline. He doesn't participate in fighting competitions, because it would tarnish his pure relationship to the practice. A series of problems tests his resolve: financial issues affecting Mike's wife (Alice Braga), an accident at the studio with a lawyer (Emily Mortimer, from "Chaos Theory"), a bar fight involving a famous movie star (Tim Allen). For a brief, seductive moment, Mike actually finds himself courted by the movie business. Mamet puts these scenes out in a clipped rat-a-tat that doesn't waste time on unnecessary information. He trusts the audience to fill in the gaps, and trusts that Mike's journey doesn't need to be spelled out at every turn. "Redbelt" focuses on a particular brand of Brazilian Jiu-jitsu, which constitutes nothing short of a code for living. Mamet has said that he has studied this form of Jiu-jitsu himself for more than five years, and called it "a modern stoicism … the perfect encapsulation of the hero." And so the hero, Mike Terry, is John Wayne and Yoda rolled into one supremely cool package. He's brought to superb life by Chiwetel Ejiofor, the British actor who, with his first widely seen performance in "Dirty Pretty Things," announced he was a major player on the scene. The rest of the cast, including regulars such as Joe Mantegna and Ricky Jay, does well at navigating that slightly frozen, not-quite-real Mamet universe. Filling in the color are real-life titans from the fight game, such as boxer Ray Mancini and mixed martial arts champ (and Lynnwood native) Randy Couture. It adds up to an arresting story that has as much to do with philosophy as fighting. If there's a disconcerting lack of gray areas around Mamet's endorsement of this Jiu-jitsu code, he nevertheless articulates that code very forcefully.

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