Film noir at its most memorable
★★★★★
‘It’s like having glass in the brain. I can’t stop pickin’ things apart . . . twistin’ ’em around, reassembling ’em. Words and sounds, especially. It’s like an itch that has to be scratched.’’
Lionel Essrog (Edward Norton) has learnt to live with Tourette’s syndrome. Gum, weed and sometimes ‘‘something a little stronger’’ help him keep the worst of the twitches and tics at bay, and he knows that stress and arguments contribute to flare-ups.
Also, whether it’s a result of a need to focus and concentrate, or not, Lionel has developed a skill for listening and remembering things, which is handy for his work as an associate investigator at New York’s L&L Agency.
Staffed by a quintet who met in a New York orphanage, the company’s bread-and-butter is a driving service, but their real strength is ‘‘snooping’’. Typical jobs include representing a rabbi whose wife is ‘‘banging a butcher’’ – ‘‘and he sure ain’t kosher’’. However, boss Frank’s (Bruce Willis) latest case seems to be something more far-reaching. As Lionel listens in, Frank meets with his clients, hoping to leverage a better deal out of what he’s discovered. But instead of a financial windfall, his request results in a fatal shot to the stomach.
While his colleagues are divided between just wanting to move on and finding out who did the deed so they can ‘‘make them regret it’’, Lionel is determined to seek out what it was Frank knew and why it got him killed. ‘‘An unfinished puzzle pains me,’’ he admits.
Welcome back, Edward Norton, we’ve missed you. Yes, this beautifully crafted, deliciously compelling, chillingly atmospheric film noir is a fabulous showcase and reminder of the 50-year-old actor’s talent. In his first major acting role since 2014’s Oscarwinning Birdman, and only his second-stint calling the shots, after 2000’s religious ‘‘rom-com’’ Keeping the Faith, Norton has delivered not only a stunning performance, but a captivating old-school tale of corruption that reminds one of 1974’s Chinatown or 1997’s
LA Confidential.
Fans of his 1999 collaboration with David Fincher and Brad Pitt, Fight Club, will also delight in his character’s description of his affliction as like ‘‘living with an anarchist’’, albeit one who wants ‘‘everything to be in order’’.
A deep bench of acting talent surrounds Norton, with Willis joined by Bobby Cannavale (The Irishman), Gugu Mbatha-Raw (A Wrinkle in Time), Ethan Suplee (My Name is Earl), Willem Dafoe (The Lighthouse) and Alec Baldwin (BlacKkKlansman).
However, it’s his decision as a writer to shift Jonathan Lethem’s 1999 novel’s modern-day setting to 1957 that proves to be the masterstroke. With expert production and costume design, and a fantastic jazz-infused score by Daniel Pemberton (Yesterday, Spider-Man:
Into the Spider-Verse), Norton truly brings the story to life in all its gloriously grimy glory.
In a movie filled with memorable moments, highlights include a less than seamless car chase (through locations that will be familiar to fans of The French Connection), some magnificent use of reflections, and the Jaws-esque decision to introduce Baldwin’s shark-like Moses Randolph initially just in sound and shadow.
It’s a crying shame/outrage that this magnificent movie was denied a cinema release here, especially given the success of Netflix’s The Irishman in its limited theatrical run. However, if you’re a fan of noir, corruption-exposing narratives, or simply just Norton, do yourself a favour and seek it out.
Motherless Brooklyn is now streaming on Lightbox, iTunes and You Tube.