Ed Norton is a complicated figure in Hollywood. He’s sort of famous behind the scenes for immersing himself in the creative process, sometimes interfering with the script and direction of the films he’s in. I think he realized at some point, if I want full creative control, I better just go out and do it himself. Norton writes, directs, and stars in Motherless Brooklyn, a film noir that hits more than it misses.
Frank Minna (Bruce Willis) runs a private investigation firm in New York in the 1950s. After a deal goes badly and Minna gets shot, his underlings Tony (Bobby Canavale), Gilbert (Ethan Suplee) and Lionel (Norton) are left to run the business and figure out what happened to their boss. Since Lionel’s Tourette’s makes him a bad spokesperson for the business, he’s left to investigate Frank’s murder, which leads him into a place where all film noirs lead: a web of conspiracies, secrets and lies.
Motherless Brooklyn spends a long time setting up its plot, sending its characters on all sorts of chases. When we’re figuring stuff out, it’s basically the Ed Norton show, where he gets to show off his acting, writing and directing skills. Lionel’s tics are played for mostly laughs early on, with everything Norton says or does pretty amusing. However, an hour in with only Norton’s acting to hold our attention and people will start to fidget in their seats. There’s a level of sameness that starts to settle in that makes you start to irritatingly write off Motherless Brooklyn as an exercise of self-serious importance to only Ed Norton.
However, when we start to follow around Gabby Horowitz (Cherry Jones), Laura Rose (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) and their clashes with Moses Randolph (Alec Baldwin), the plot kicks into high gear and we start following the real players in the story. The true messages of the film take shape during this section of Motherless Brooklyn. Norton smartly weaves between character development, plot twists, and action, bringing Motherless Brooklyn alive. Norton has a lot to say about city development, disenfranchisement, political process, the corruptive influence of power, and idealism vs pragmatism. Not all the pieces fit well into the story, but all of it at least is interesting and worth spending time thinking about as you leave the theater. A lot of the 2nd Half of Motherless Brooklyn’s success is due to Alec Baldwin, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Michael K. Williams, and Willem Dafoe, who turn in solid performances crafting interesting characters with limited screen time.
Of all the work Edward Norton tries to do with Motherless Brooklyn, he succeeds best with his acting and writing. I hope Norton continues to write, but I also hope he learns to collaborate more with brilliant directors like he’s done in the past (watch Birdman, for example).I am aware that power checked Edward Norton might become a tad angry though, and you wouldn’t like him when he’s angry…