Edward Norton has had a nice career over his lifetime. “The Hulk” is one he will always be known for in his biography but his latest feature “Motherless Brooklyn”, 19 years in his mind Norton has directed and penned this crime/drama from the Jonathan Lethem book. Set in 1950’s New York, private detective Lionel (Norton) afflicted with Tourette’s Syndrome sets out to solve his only friend and mentor’s (Bruce Willis) murder.
As he slowly unravels the mystery he ventures into dangerous turf in Brooklyn where there are tightly guarded secrets of which the city has a stranglehold on. His path leads to a power hungry real estate developer (Alex Baldwin) who’s sole purpose is evicting the Latinos and blacks to expand his growth. The backdrop of Brooklyn brings back flashbacks of the late model cars, pay phones and the old-style buildings New York was so abundant in. Along his way Lionel becomes involved with a femme fatale type woman (Gugo Mbatha-Raw), the type one would see in the likes of “The Big Easy” or similar styles of the past.
The way lengthy film travels to different sides of Brooklyn with interesting entanglements but finally wakes up and accelerates where his mind disorder pays off with the risks involved in making this movie. I would like to know how many ‘takes’ to get it right. Some of the outbursts were funny and that is a good script. Although the film drags in places, the dialog at one tone, the accents were so New Yorkish and Norton has a fairly good piece of work here. My question is with Bruce Willis being in the headline of the starring cast, he didn’t stay long. He’s a strong actor and he deserved better but that could have been and probably was his choice. It’s money, leadership and politics that make the world go around. He doesn’t die hard. The movie opens everywhere November 1. 3 stars (out of 5).
