X
- 2019
- R
- Warner Bros.
- 2 h 24 m
- 2019
- R
- Warner Bros.
- 2 h 24 m
Summary Set against the backdrop of 1950s New York, Motherless Brooklyn follows Lionel Essrog (Edward Norton), a lonely private detective living with Tourette Syndrome, as he ventures to solve the murder of his mentor and only friend, Frank Minna (Bruce Willis). Armed only with a few clues and the engine of his obsessive mind, Lionel unravels c...
Directed By: Edward Norton
Written By: Jonathan Lethem, Edward Norton
- 2019
- R
- Warner Bros.
- 2 h 24 m
- 2019
- R
- Warner Bros.
- 2 h 24 m
Motherless Brooklyn
60
7.2
Where to Watch
Summary Set against the backdrop of 1950s New York, Motherless Brooklyn follows Lionel Essrog (Edward Norton), a lonely private detective living with Tourette Syndrome, as he ventures to solve the murder of his mentor and only friend, Frank Minna (Bruce Willis). Armed only with a few clues and the engine of his obsessive mind, Lionel unravels c...
Directed By: Edward Norton
Written By: Jonathan Lethem, Edward Norton
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 36 Critic Reviews
60
56% Positive
20 Reviews
20 Reviews
36% Mixed
13 Reviews
13 Reviews
8% Negative
3 Reviews
3 Reviews
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 36 Critic Reviews
60
56% Positive
20 Reviews
20 Reviews
36% Mixed
13 Reviews
13 Reviews
8% Negative
3 Reviews
3 Reviews
I haven’t seen a crime thriller this good since L.A. Confidential.
The most surprising thing about director/writer/star Edward Norton’s Motherless Brooklyn is how drastically it departs from its source.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 130 User Ratings
7.2
67% Positive
87 Ratings
87 Ratings
28% Mixed
36 Ratings
36 Ratings
5% Negative
7 Ratings
7 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 130 User Ratings
7.2
67% Positive
87 Ratings
87 Ratings
28% Mixed
36 Ratings
36 Ratings
5% Negative
7 Ratings
7 Ratings
I simply can't agree or support the mixed or negative reviews this got by critics. Thoroughly enjoyed this film. great feel throughout the movie, and the soundtrack is now in my playlist for life. Edward poured his heart into this project and the work is exceptional. truly hope this gets the recognition it highly deserves.
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Lionel’s mannerisms could have gotten obnoxious in a hurry, but Norton calibrates the performance so that the character remains unpredictable without becoming unbearable.
What should have been the trickiest parts of this enterprise – elucidating the warm relationship between Essrog (Norton) and Minna (Bruce Willis), and Essrog’s Tourette syndrome – Norton handles with aplomb. The rest is a murky mess, unnecessarily dense and confusing for two hours, and then in the last 20 minutes, way too obvious.
The high-mindedness of the movie, its showy conviction that its heart is in the right place, dulls some of its political insights. And its grandiosity undermines the ragged pleasures of the genre.
Ultimately, frustration and fatigue prevail over the film’s intellectual acuity and political insight; neither is any true emotion ever forthcoming. This is odd and disappointing.
It’s far from the worst movie ever produced, but it’s a one-of-a-kind disaster, and therefore interesting.
Overall, I'd have to say the film is a bit tiresome. It might have done better as a straight detective flick, or as a film delving into a man's mental challenges, but combining the two somehow yields up less than the sum of its parts. Lionel Essrog is an interesting character but should have remained a supporting character. He just doesn't have enough of the right stuff, whatever that might be, to carry the movie on his own.
The plot, of course, doesn't help. It's another corrupt fat cat (ho-hum) steamrolling his way over anyone who opposes him and maybe it's time we consigned fat cats to the genre dung heap. I mean, I'd rather watch a film so tormented that no one, not even Raymond Chandler, can explain it, as long as it's got players like Bogart and Bacall to keep the action entertaining, as in The Big Sleep (1946).
On the other hand, I wouldn't mind getting to see a movie that stuck to the original novel. The author of the original novel described Edward Norton's adaptation by saying, "It’s as if the book was a dream the movie once had and was trying to remember it..."
Not exactly a ringing endorsement.
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This loosely fact-based 1950s crime saga has much going for it but, unfortunately, it doesn't quite pull it all together. The film's superb noir-esque production design, inventive cinematography and ethereal soundtrack create the perfect mood and setting for its stellar cast, including Edward Norton, Alec Baldwin, Bruce Willis, Willem Dafoe, Bobby Cannavale, Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Cherry Jones, creating a vehicle reminiscent of "Chinatown." Sadly, the overlong and, at times, exceedingly convoluted story line becomes difficult to follow, trying the patience of even the most devoted moviegoers. A nice try, but one that doesn't quite knock it out of the park.
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This is not the art of cinema, or even a film. This is cheap propaganda and a very crude settling of political scores, «seasoned» with a bawdy attitude towards women or, as it is fashionable to say in the liberal USA - **** main secret of the picture is so banal that it becomes clear at the very beginning of the story, from which the whole intrigue crumbles and the film becomes uninteresting. The story itself is very cliched and outrageously direct, like the interests of a cave troglodyte. Cinematograph moved away from such a topic, back in the early 1980s. Now it smacks of the spirit of cheap Latin American «soap operas». The film does not keep the viewer in suspense, the longer the screen time passes, the more boring the action **** detective abilities of the main character are almost equal to 0%, since he draws most of the information from hints left earlier or from «random» meetings with strangers, so conveniently prescribed by the authors in the script. The actions of the heroes are illogical. Frank Minna's at the beginning of the film contradicts the legacy of his character at the end of the story. Tony Vermonte is the most ridiculous, primitive and poorly scripted character. The secondary character Julia Minna is a meaningless character. Her story begins and does not end. It seems that in order to reduce screen time, her branch of the narrative was simply thrown into the trash. The whole explanation of her participation in the story boils down to a gentle dialogue between two other **** reason for the enmity between the main character and the main villain is «**** out of the finger». If the story had been placed in 1937 or 1947, it could have been understood. But in 1957, in which the events unfold, the main mystery of the film is NOT an obstacle to the achievement of the goal by the antagonist. There is no logical reason for a villain with full power over New York to resort to criminal violence, and even with the use of **** antagonist is shown at the beginning of the story as a domineering, purposeful, man suffering from a limp, but capable of charismatic actions with a well «suspended» language. Towards the end of the film, in order to link it with the image of Donald Trump, the antagonist turns at the whim of the screenwriters into an obese, clumsy, tongue-tied, rude, bawdy lout with gangster habits. The lameness disappears, it is banally forgotten (one of the many «blunders» of the painting). At the request of the director, the ENTIRE educated, intelligent and wealthy elite of New York City adheres to exploitative, selfish and racist views. Which is a «blood libel» and an outright lie, both to people who lived in 1957 and to their colleagues in 2019. The antagonist consolidates the forces of his supporters under the slogan (quote) «We are the ones who make America Great!» - a direct allusion to the Republican Party, President Trump and the slogan of millions of voters - the MAGA (Make America Great Again!). The de facto «Motherless Brooklyn» incites national and racial hostility on ideological grounds.Another disgusting example of Hollywood chauvinism is the distorted representation on the screen of people suffering from Tourette's syndrome. According to statistics from the USA itself, only 10% to 15% of people with the syndrome suffer from spontaneous profanity. However, in the film, this is shown as the ability of the main character, Lionel Essrog (Edward Norton), to vent hatred on people alien to him, which is covered by «mental health characteristics». This effect is especially noticeable and enhanced when the protagonist communicates with the female sex. Phrases of insult and allusion to the debauchery of Julia Minna, the call «kiss her, hurry up!» in the car, in relation to an unknown woman and a **** monkey scream «oh... big ****!» in relation to the brunette receptionist in the office. Who is wearing a thick cranberry-colored sweater and, if desired, it is difficult to see large breasts without using a freeze frame. All this, of course, will be justified by the screenwriters, as following the book of the same name and «Lionel's struggle with his inner demon», which materializes through Tourette's syndrome. But it is painfully similar to the contemptuous, consumerist attitude towards women based on the hooligan habits and a sense of self-superiority of Hollywood celebrities. The sexualization of women is understandable in brutal action movies, romance novels and teen comedies. Since the essence boils down to two things - the consent of the woman herself to emphasize her physical advantages or to her rejection of such an attitude and getting a character of the opposite sex into an awkward and unpleasant situation. In same film, the desire for **** physical contact between the main character and the women he likes is hypocritically justified by a rare and serious illness. Which makes it doubly disgusting.
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The opening scene catches your attention, and it slowly dwindles from there. Norton and crew blow on the embers of a worn out agenda. But the fires already gone. The jazz breaks, offer a dreamy state to the movie, and Baldwin's performance offers time for a bathroom break. The movie feels about 30 minutes too long.
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Production Company
Warner Bros.,
Class 5 Films,
Madison Wells
Release Date Nov 1, 2019
Duration 2 h 24 m
Rating R
Awards
Golden Globes, USA
• 1 Nomination
Satellite Awards
• 2 Wins & 4 Nominations
Hollywood Music In Media Awards (HMMA)
• 2 Nominations
