It is hard to believe that it has been nineteen years since Edward Norton stepped behind the camera to direct a feature film. A two-decade sabbatical means that Motherless Brooklyn would be something special, but in fact, the filmmaker has been trying to get the film made for many years – reportedly developing the movie since the early 2000s.
Courtesy of TIFF
Adapted from the Jonathan Lethem book of the same name – which is set in and around New York City in the 1990s, Norton – who acts as actor, screenwriter, director, and co-producer chooses to set his film in the 1950s, firmly in the film noir genre, complete with moody-lit NYC streets, smoky whiskey joints and a soundtrack dripping with soft jazz.
We open with Edward Norton’s character, Lionel Essrog, forty-something and suffering with Tourette’s syndrome, sat in a car with friend and work colleague Gilbert (Ethan Surplee) who are waiting for their boss, Frank Minna (Bruce Willis) to surface from a nearby building to inform them of the reason they are there. A meeting is about to go down and Lionel, while suffering from the effects of Tourettes – frequent audible outbursts, having to duplicate tasks until perfect etc. – has a remarkable ability to remember things, so Frank asks him to listen in on a conversation held in a building up the street over the telephone. That meeting naturally doesn’t go well, and Frank finds himself in immediate hot water, led out of the city to a random location and shot in the back, both Lionel and Gilbert in hot pursuit but too late to prevent it.
After being rushed to the hospital, Frank succumbs to his wounds – this is in the trailer and happens in the first ten minutes or so – leaving Lionel, Gilbert and their other two colleagues at their private investigation firm utterly devastated. The film follows Lionel’s relentless pursuit in finding out the truth about what Frank got himself mixed up in and why he ended up dead.
Related: Motherless Brooklyn gets a brand new trailer
Norton’s film is both ambitious, stylish and utterly beautiful in terms of its look, the sweeping shots of period New York City courtesy of legendary director of photography Dick Pope an absolute treat for the eyes. The production design too is magnificent, 1950s New York captured with both practical sets – era Penn Station late on a particular stand-out – and non-invasive CGI – there are reportedly over 600 effects shots in this movie.
Then there’s the music – a wonderful jazz mixed with full string dramatic elements – another magnificent score from Daniel Pemberton and a stand-out main theme – the haunting ‘Daily Battles’ from Thom Yorke – one that will almost certainly gain a best original song nod this awards season.
Norton’s love of the source material shines through onto the screen, and you have to take your 1950s Fedora off to him for choosing to move the narrative to a period setting – bumping up the production cost massively – and sticking to his guns throughout development.
The cast is magnificent. Bruce Willis, despite his limited screen time lights up the screen at the very start, while there is great support from some of the best talents working today – Bobby Cannavale, Gugu Mbatha-Raw and particularly Michael Kenneth Williams as a horn playing jazz ace are all brilliant, while Alec Baldwin and Willem Dafoe, despite being on screen for a more limited time, also delight, the former with supreme menace as the ‘villain’ of the piece.
Make no mistake, though, this is Norton’s show. As an actor, in what couldn’t have been an easy role to play – let alone direct everyone else at the same time – he’s exceptional, his screenplay offering his character’s Tourettes as a dimension ever present – a very realistic depiction of the disorder.
The main issue with the film is its length. It is far too long coming in at just under two and a half hours. Thirty minutes shaved off would have done it so much good, tighter pacing edging out what can be a slow-moving story in places. The plot is also complicated, but equally involving so its not difficult to keep up.
That said, it is still an absorbing watch, an impressive piece by all involved. Norton skillfully crafts a brilliant second feature – technically brilliant, both visually and audibly with some amazing performances from its central cast. Let’s hope he doesn’t wait another twenty years for his third directorial effort.
Motherless Brooklyn was reviewed at TIFF 2019.
