Motherless Brooklyn

Starring: Edward Norton, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Alec Baldwin, Willem Dafoe, Bruce Willis, Michael K. Williams, Bobby Cannavale, Cherry Jones, Ethan Suplee, Fisher Stevens

Director: Edward Norton

Based on the novel "Motherless Brooklyn" by Jonathan Lethem

After P.I. Frank Minna (Bruce Willis) is murdered while working a job, right hand man and protégé Lionel Essrog (Edward Norton) searches for the reason why. While Lionel has a photographic memory, he also suffers from Tourette's, which inspires many inconvenient and unexpected outbursts. The only lead he has leads him to Hamilton Housing Project and Laura (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), who may or may not know what got Frank killed. Lionel soon uncovers a vast web of corruption, leading back to beloved yet ruthless city official Moses Randolph (Alec Baldwin).

I love film noir and murder mysteries. It's definitely a genre that has faded away over the years, yet appear to be on the comeback trail thanks to this film and the upcoming Knives Out. Unfortunately, things are not off to a good start as Motherless Brooklyn fails to grasp the concept of what audiences want to see in a film like this.

In a major change from the book (which I have not read), Norton has decided to transplant the story from present day to the 1950's. The racially motivated story is equally relevant set today, so there was no real reason for Norton to do this outside of self indulgence. It's clear Norton fancies this as his Chinatown, and despite my dislike of that film, this film can't even hold a candle to that cinematic classic.

Adapting this novel has been a passion project for Norton for the past nineteen years and this is very evident in the final product. The film is very long and feels it. Clocking in at 2 hours and 24 minutes, the film is an absolute slog to get through. Once all is revealed, and there really isn't much mystery to be had in the first place, there is a lot of fat that could have been trimmed to make this a much more engaging film. This is Norton's sophomore film after 2000's rom-com Keeping the Faith. Although he was worked with many top tier directors, this hasn't helped his evolution behind the camera. Norton at least had the sense to surround himself with many talented if underused actors in this film, including Gugu Mbatha-Raw (watch Fast Color instead), Willem Dafoe (watch The Lighthouse instead), a better than the movie deserves Michael K Williams, a scenery chewing Alec Baldwin, and a somnambulant Bruce Willis.

Norton's lack of directing and self-editing skills don't translate to the actor, as he is very much invested into Lionel. I'm not sure where this falls on the spectrum in how it deals with Tourette's Syndrome. Nicknamed "Bailey" by Lionel, Norton uses various facial and hand tics while also adopting the sudden exclamations that audiences are used to when they see a character with Tourette's. More often than not, the exclamations end up being used to lighten the mood. I don't know that his character needed to adopt both symptoms of Tourette's, especially since the verbal one is used most often. It starts off as potentially offensive but as the movie progresses becomes less so and becomes part of the character. Maybe that was the point but it starts to feel very forced. Norton clearly did a lot of research into the disorder, especially with the physical tics which felt less forced. I know this would have upped the comedic factor, which wouldn’t have fit tonally, but Norton's narrator doesn't have Tourette's. It's a small inconsistency that really bugged me, despite knowing what it would have added to the movie.

While Thom Yorke's jazzy music pieces are quite good, they aren't used nearly as much as they should be. It's a huge missed opportunity to add more much needed atmosphere.

The fact that this movie failed on so many levels is a bummer to me. It's clear that Norton should stick to acting, as his performance is really the only reason to check out this over-long and pretentious mess. At least I still have Knives Out.

D