MOTHERLESS BROOKLYN
****
Director: Edward Norton
Screenwriter: Edward Norton, based on the eponymous novel by Jonathan Lethem.
Principal cast:
Edward Norton
Gugu Mbatha-Raw
Alec Baldwin
Bobby Cannavale
Willem Dafoe
Bruce Willis
Country: USA
Classification: M
Runtime: 144 mins.
Australian release date: 27 February 2020.
In the same way that it took Mel Gibson around 20 years to get the best-selling book by Simon Winchester to the screen as The Professor And The Madman, so it has taken Edward Norton 20 or so years to film Jonathan Lethem’s award-winning novel Motherless Brooklyn. The former was written in 1998 and the latter the following year, and both Gibson and Norton purchased the film rights to them not long after their publication. And that’s where the similarities end, because Gibson has made his dissatisfaction with TPATM well-known, having been declined final cut authority and thus refusing to do publicity for the film, whereas Norton directed and wrote Motherless Brooklyn himself, so it’s fair to assume he is happy with the result. He should be. He’s done a terrific job of taking the somewhat expansive plot of the original novel and grounding in the New York of 1957, concentrating on a Chinatown-like, film noir-type story about power and corruption in the urban renewal projects of the period in NYC. If that sounds heavy-going, don’t worry, it’s not, but it does require your concentration throughout the long running-time.
Norton himself plays Lionel Essrog, a guy with Tourette’s Syndrome who works for a small-time private detective agency run by Frank Minna (Bruce Willis). Minna is a father figure and mentor to Lionel who named him ‘Motherless Brooklyn’ because he plucked him from an orphanage in that city, along with the other guys (Bobby Cannavale, Ethan Suplee and Dallas Roberts) who work for him. Minna took a shine to Lionel when he realised that the kid had an extraordinary memory and was able to repeat entire conversations days after they had taken place. Most of this is conveyed in the movie’s opening set-up, as a skittish Minna is about to go into a meeting with some heavies and instructing Lionel and Danny (Roberts) on what to do if things go wrong - and, of course, they do go wrong, leading to a car-chase through the city streets that culminates in Minna getting shot with his own gun. From then on, Lionel devotes himself to finding out who is responsible for the crime, which takes him on a convoluted hunt from City Hall to Harlem and back again. Along the way, he encounters Laura (Gugu Mbatha-Raw - there’s always a ‘dame’ in a film noir movie), who’s working for a group battling against the malign forces behind the so-called ‘urban renewal.’
Norton is excellent in his multiple roles as producer, director, screenwriter and actor. He does wonderful work as Lionel, who could have been reduced to mere tics and mannerisms but is made into much, much more by Norton’s delicate handling of his character’s Tourette’s; it would be easy to overplay a role like this but he has avoided that temptation. Lionel calls his condition ‘Bailey’ and says “It’s like living with an anarchist,” albeit a neat and tidy one! After the fast-paced opening, Motherless Brooklyn settles down to a more measured pace and tone as the many threads of the plot begin to reveal themselves. A brilliant jazzy score featuring Wynton Marsalis on trumpet manages to evoke both the period setting and the free-form, scat vocal-like way that Lionel’s brain works. There’s a great song from Radiohead’s Thom Yorke on the soundtrack, too, Daily Battles. A terrific supporting cast of A-List actors like Willis, Cannavale, Alec Baldwin and Willem Dafoe round out Norton and Mbatha-Raw’s leading roles. Baldwin, particularly, is excellent playing a Donald Trump-ish part without going down his Saturday Night Live impersonation route.
This is a timely film, even though the novel was written 20 years ago. Some themes are perennial, the pursuit of power being one of them and how it’s wielded, once attained, another. Baldwin delivers a chilling speech at one point, telling Lionel that, “You don’t know how power works.” Motherless Brooklyn is an abject lesson on the corrupting influence of power that will put you in mind of any number of contemporary villains striding world, and local, stages.
Screenwriter: Edward Norton, based on the eponymous novel by Jonathan Lethem.
Principal cast:
Edward Norton
Gugu Mbatha-Raw
Alec Baldwin
Bobby Cannavale
Willem Dafoe
Bruce Willis
Country: USA
Classification: M
Runtime: 144 mins.
Australian release date: 27 February 2020.
In the same way that it took Mel Gibson around 20 years to get the best-selling book by Simon Winchester to the screen as The Professor And The Madman, so it has taken Edward Norton 20 or so years to film Jonathan Lethem’s award-winning novel Motherless Brooklyn. The former was written in 1998 and the latter the following year, and both Gibson and Norton purchased the film rights to them not long after their publication. And that’s where the similarities end, because Gibson has made his dissatisfaction with TPATM well-known, having been declined final cut authority and thus refusing to do publicity for the film, whereas Norton directed and wrote Motherless Brooklyn himself, so it’s fair to assume he is happy with the result. He should be. He’s done a terrific job of taking the somewhat expansive plot of the original novel and grounding in the New York of 1957, concentrating on a Chinatown-like, film noir-type story about power and corruption in the urban renewal projects of the period in NYC. If that sounds heavy-going, don’t worry, it’s not, but it does require your concentration throughout the long running-time.
Norton himself plays Lionel Essrog, a guy with Tourette’s Syndrome who works for a small-time private detective agency run by Frank Minna (Bruce Willis). Minna is a father figure and mentor to Lionel who named him ‘Motherless Brooklyn’ because he plucked him from an orphanage in that city, along with the other guys (Bobby Cannavale, Ethan Suplee and Dallas Roberts) who work for him. Minna took a shine to Lionel when he realised that the kid had an extraordinary memory and was able to repeat entire conversations days after they had taken place. Most of this is conveyed in the movie’s opening set-up, as a skittish Minna is about to go into a meeting with some heavies and instructing Lionel and Danny (Roberts) on what to do if things go wrong - and, of course, they do go wrong, leading to a car-chase through the city streets that culminates in Minna getting shot with his own gun. From then on, Lionel devotes himself to finding out who is responsible for the crime, which takes him on a convoluted hunt from City Hall to Harlem and back again. Along the way, he encounters Laura (Gugu Mbatha-Raw - there’s always a ‘dame’ in a film noir movie), who’s working for a group battling against the malign forces behind the so-called ‘urban renewal.’
Norton is excellent in his multiple roles as producer, director, screenwriter and actor. He does wonderful work as Lionel, who could have been reduced to mere tics and mannerisms but is made into much, much more by Norton’s delicate handling of his character’s Tourette’s; it would be easy to overplay a role like this but he has avoided that temptation. Lionel calls his condition ‘Bailey’ and says “It’s like living with an anarchist,” albeit a neat and tidy one! After the fast-paced opening, Motherless Brooklyn settles down to a more measured pace and tone as the many threads of the plot begin to reveal themselves. A brilliant jazzy score featuring Wynton Marsalis on trumpet manages to evoke both the period setting and the free-form, scat vocal-like way that Lionel’s brain works. There’s a great song from Radiohead’s Thom Yorke on the soundtrack, too, Daily Battles. A terrific supporting cast of A-List actors like Willis, Cannavale, Alec Baldwin and Willem Dafoe round out Norton and Mbatha-Raw’s leading roles. Baldwin, particularly, is excellent playing a Donald Trump-ish part without going down his Saturday Night Live impersonation route.
This is a timely film, even though the novel was written 20 years ago. Some themes are perennial, the pursuit of power being one of them and how it’s wielded, once attained, another. Baldwin delivers a chilling speech at one point, telling Lionel that, “You don’t know how power works.” Motherless Brooklyn is an abject lesson on the corrupting influence of power that will put you in mind of any number of contemporary villains striding world, and local, stages.
