Motherless Brooklyn
2019
**½
Director: Edward Norton
Cast: Edward Norton, Bruce Willis, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Bobby Cannavale, Cherry Jones, Alec Baldwin, Willem Dafoe, Michael K. Williams, Leslie Mann, Ethan Suplee, Dallas Roberts
Edward Norton acquired the rights to Jonathan Lethem's 1999 novel as soon as it was published and then spent the next two decades trying get the adaptation to the screen. Now the film is here and Norton is credited as producer, director, writer, and actor. In the end, he took two characters from the book, moved the setting from the present day to 1957, and made up all the rest. What is the point of that? Norton plays Lionel Essrog, a private detective with Tourette's syndrome. As he investigates the murder of his mentor, he unravels a web of corruption surrounding the planning and building in New York City. This is a good-looking but long and convoluted neo-noir with an unusual main character who is full of ticks and shouts. However, nobody seems to care about his medical condition and it ultimately plays no role in the story.
