It is a strange film. The dialogue is excellent - top level Mamet, quite gripping. The plot is pretty nonsensical; why would Tim Allen send Chiwetel Ejiofor a stolen watch? Why would the cop not just admit that the watch was stolen rather than kill himself and leave a widow who can't pay her bills -is that really more honorable than just saying what happened? Why did the cop put the honor of the hole in the wall karate studio above everything else in his life? Bizarre. Why did the wife tell her brother about the window situation? Why did the fight use the REALLY STUPID white ball/black ball idea? No one wants to watch someone randomly beat up another guy with their hands tied behind their back or blindfolded, lol. Horrible idea. And Ejiofor tries to trademark that idea? Why did the lawyer chick slap Ejiofor toward the end?

The whole plot is a terrible mess. With that said, I was expecting Ejiofor to enter the tournament and make it at least to the finals, maybe win at the finals, maybe lose at the finals. The way it transpired instead was super kooky and strange, I did not expect it, and I *guess* it kind of works, but not for rewatchability - this is not a movie with much rewatchability.

Ejiofor did a great job in the role, and I always like watching Ricky Jay who appears in fourth or fifth billing in a bunch of Mamet movies.

Aside from the terrible plotting but excellent dialogue, the film does highlight a theme I enjoy and appreciate: how all the factors of life conspire toward corruption and denial of virtue at the worship of the mighty Dollar altar, and only the unreasonable man who puts certain principles above everything else has a chance of changing the world (almost entirely a losing chance). The end was silly in this respect, I think, portraying Ejiofor as coming out on top. That was too optimistic, I think. If they recast the film as a tragedy where Ejiofor loses everything because he held onto his values in a world that didn't care I think the power and impact of the film would've been stronger. But with that said, it was a somewhat uplifting end that he came out on top.

I would give it...it's a hard one because the dialogue was great, the story was shit, the acting was good, and the message was muddled. I guess a 6 - I don't think it has much rewatchability.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5635589&forum_id=2/#48347440)

Early on his wife tells him he just has to "wait for the wheel to come around"

That one line is extremely profound and captured the entire theme of the film, and is called back later

The wheel came around for him, and he royally fucked it up. He made his choice and it was a bad ending for him as a result. He had 0 chance of ever changing shit

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5635589&forum_id=2/#48347544)

i thought the main theme was the tension between keeping one's internally felt code of honor or betraying it, which may or may not have made sense -- his unreasonableness got him in a lot of trouble, but mamet had him "win" (at least in a certain sense) at the end

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5635589&forum_id=2/#48347568)