086 REVIEW
here’s an astonishing scene in Motherless
Brooklyn where Edward Norton’s gumshoe
narrator, who has Tourette syndrome, chases
a lead in the case he’s working to a small, smoke-filled
jazz club in Harlem. Pulling up a stool at the far end
of the bar next to the cramped back-corner stage, he
begins to twitch and scat in serendipitous harmony
with the music, his every tic and yip matching the
house band’s off-beat groove. For the first time in his
life, Lionel Essrog ’s neurological affliction suddenly
makes sense.
If only the same could be said of the film itself.
Adapting Jonathan Lethem’s 1999 novel of the same
name, this is Norton’s second directorial effort
after 2000’s Nora Ephron-lite love triangle comedy
Keeping the Faith. Having also taken on the lead role
and screenwriting duties, his long overdue follow-up
has the distinct air of a vanity project doomed by its
maker’s overambition. To be fair to Norton, with so
many disparate moving parts and so many weighty
themes at work, it’s a wonder he’s managed to deliver
something even remotely coherent.
Just as Essrog is not your average private dick,
Motherless Brooklyn is a less-than-conventional
postmodern crime noir whose central murder
plot (nice to see Bruce Willis earning his keep
for a change) is essentially window dressing for a
stern-faced examination of New York City’s murky
municipal past. Specifically, the film addresses the
systematic dismantling of inner-city communities
during America’s postwar boom years, taking a
particularly dim view of the men who ruthlessly
exploited the poorest and most vulnerable citizensunder the banner of ‘progress’.
Following a mysterious paper trail in the wake of
his boss’ death, our hero eventually finds his way into
the marble-decked offices of Moses Randolph (Alec
Baldwin), who displays all the bluff and bluster of a
career politician but is in fact an unelected public
official with grand designs on remodelling New York
regardless of the cost (monetary or otherwise) to
the local taxpayer. Randolph is a barely-disguised
proxy for Robert Moses, the powerful town planner
whose urban renewal project saw scores of working-
class people – mostly black and ethnic minority –
displaced from their homes throughout the 1940s
and ’50s. (For more on this subject, seek out Robert
Caro’s excellent 1974 biography of Moses, ‘The
Power Broker’.)
Fascinating though it is to see Norton continue
Caro’s work in scrutinising the legacy of one of
Gotham’s most influential and controversial figures,
Norton’s anti-capitalist message is undermined by
his film’s sentimental tendencies. Even if you can
stomach the romantic subplot between Essrog
and Gugu Mbatha-Raw’s community activist –
soundtracked by a maudlin ballad performed by,
of all duos, Thom Yorke and Flea – and a still more
baffling family reunion subplot involving Willem
Dafoe’s crotchety loner, you may well find yourself
distracted by Norton’s full-tilt performance.
This film wants us to come away thinking about
the unjust and racist foundations upon which
the American Dream was built, but instead it’s the
image of Norton ski-do-be-bop-bapping in that
smoky jazz club that lingers. ADAM WOODWARDT
Motherless Brooklyn
Directed by
EDWARD NORTON
Starring
EDWARD NORTON
GUGU MBATHA-RAW
ALEC BALDWIN
Released
6 DECEMBER
ANTICIPATION.
Like Edward Norton, actor.
Less certain about Edward
Norton, director.
ENJOYMENT.
A hot mess, but in a fun way.
IN RETROSPECT.
Capitalism: bad. Racism: bad.
Jazz: bad??