Motherless Brooklyn Movie Review

Motherless Brooklyn (2019)

Rent Motherless Brooklyn on Amazon Video
Written by: Jonathan Lethem (based on the novel by), Edward Norton (screenplay)
Directed by: Edward Norton
Starring: Edward Norton, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Alec Baldwin, Bobby Cannavale, Willem Dafoe, Bruce Willis, Ethan Suplee, Fisher Stevens, Michael Kenneth Williams
Rated: R
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Plot
In 1950s New York, a lonely private detective afflicted with Tourette's Syndrome ventures to solve the murder of his mentor and only friend.

Verdict
Ed Norton is a great actor. This character is unique, but that doesn't make it good. This is a swirling mystery that teeters towards indulgence. The film noir genre doesn't get many entries, and while this is competent, the core mystery just isn't that intriguing.
Skip it.

Review
I'll always watch an Ed Norton movie. I like the actor's work. He's one of those guys that inhabits a completely different persona with every role.

Ed Norton plays Lionel

Norton plays Lionel, a man with Tourette's. It makes him a unique character but also a prime example of why it's not done very much. It's difficult to separate the performance from the story. This film noir mystery feels likes something classic, but also unoriginal.

There are plenty of twists and turns, but the mystery is too nice and neat. It's not ambiguous, there just isn't a stake. Lionel is trying to avenge his mentor, and the bad guy, while not good, doesn't seem all that different from any other politician.  I want something more. Watching Norton act for a couple hours is the only draw. He does a great job, but a movie needs a story too.

This touches a lot of issues, but doesn't develop them.  I wish I could say this movie is about discrimination and housing, but it's really about a private eye with Tourettes. This isn't the typical mystery where the bad guy is attempting to gain more. He's just attempting to maintain. If the piont of the movie is that Lionel's mentor wasn't all that great of a guy, then it needs a reaction from Lionel. Disappointment would work, but we don't get that. Norton gets to show off. It's a detective chase as Lionel attempts to put the pieces together and not much more.

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