Motherless Brooklyn (2019)

Rating: ⭐½

This little known movie would never have gotten under my radar if not for its producer, director and actor Edward Norton. I have always enjoyed Edward Norton's diverse range of movies and can't say I have seen him in anything since Birdman in a supporting role in 2014. In addition I notice an impressive cast for this one which includes Alec Baldwin, William Dafoe and another one my favourite, Bruce Willis. The premise is set in a corrupt and racist New York in the 1950's and had the looks of a classic noir detective thriller. With a running time of almost two and a half hours, this looks like an ambitious outing and I was all geared up for a Edward Norton tour de force.

Alas, Motherless Brooklyn turned out to be long and boring with a tale and characters that offer little interest to make me care enough to be engaged. Norton plays the main character, Lionel who has something called Tourette's Syndrome which means he has frequent uncontrolled body twitching and has outbursts or makes sounds and inappropriate remarks. He somehow also have something like a photography memory of things he hear which of course comes conveniently useful in solving the mystery. However his frequent twitching and need to explain to fellow characters on screen becomes tiresome and frankly adds zero value to the progress of the story. In addition the convoluted plot doesn't help either to keep thing even the slightest bit interesting for the viewer, and I found myself constantly look at my watch to check on how much longer before the movie ends. 

Edward Norton is a great talent and I will still watch his movies any time. However, this effort was simply not watchable despite the good performances from a talented cast, and great sets to portray a convincing 1950's New York. It takes more than good performances, and sets to make a movie interesting. And it certainly did not require two and a half hours to tell the tale. I say it was at least one hour too long! Anyway, my advise is to stay clear from this Motherless Brooklyn.