Motherless Brooklyn (2019)

 ☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Motherless Brooklyn (2019) – E. Norton

The structure of the old political film noir (corrupt officials are behind everything) is plain to see in the bones of Edward Norton’s second directorial effort.  However, Norton loses the bite of the best noir by slowing the pace and labouring over every moment.  Sure, the 1950s period details are perfect and the various players are well chosen – but everyone, particularly Norton, is given far too much screen time to try to dazzle us.  A crisper film that tightened some of the more extended scenes (Lionel’s night in the jazz club) and moved more efficiently from clue to clue would have been better.  Of course, the aim here may have been to replicate the woozy success of Chinatown, where the hero is lost in the labyrinth, unable to piece together the facts until it is too late.  Norton’s detective protagonist (Motherless Brooklyn/Lionel Essrog/Freakshow) is designed with built in “flaws” in that he has Tourette’s Syndrome (the film was apparently approved by a society of people with this disorder) – which makes his investigation all the more difficult (or maybe not; it feels mostly like a showcase for Norton to demonstrate his acting prowess not unlike other roles he has taken).  Bruce Willis is used for good effect in a small part, Willem Dafoe overdoes it a bit, and Alec Baldwin seems rather too subdued (a missed opportunity). But, for fans of the genre, this may still hit the spot, even if the ultimate feeling is one of disappointment.