Review: Motherless Brooklyn

-
He'd do it for me.

Lionel Essrog (Edward Norton) is a private eye whose mentor, Frank (Bruce Willis) is gunned down before his eyes while working a case. He attempts to solve Frank's murder and seeks out the woman Frank was following, Laura. (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) He doesn't have all the pieces, but he does have a brilliant mind...that occasionally causes outbursts as he suffers from Tourette's Syndrome.

I save that for last because Norton mostly uses Tourette's as comedy relief aside from a very sweet scene in a night club (with the lovely Michael Kenneth Williams on the trumpet) and a few interrogations.Perhaps the book this film is based on plays it differently.

I'm finding myself at a bit of a crossroads with this movie too. (and like The Lighthouse, Willem DaFoe makes an appearance here too) I left it thinking I probably would've enjoyed the book more as I love mysteries. One of the reasons is because you can sit with a few chapters before starting the next. With this film and its 2 1/2 hour run time, it throws so much information at you that I found myself getting confused at times. When the film started to drag, I started to over think what I had just saw. Then the pay off doesn't feel very satisfactory for all the hoops we just watched Lionel jump through. 

But the story IS interesting. I just wish they had trimmed it up a bit. I felt like too many things went nowhere. The actors did a good job. I'm always here for Gugu who was the standout. Norton carries the film well and he's a fine director. There's some truly beautiful shots here. 

After reading some pretty terrible reviews of this, I did end up liking it more than I was expecting to, so that was a plus, but it still had plenty of problems.

Recommended: Yes

Grade: B-

Memorable Quote: "You don't know what you're getting into." - Paul (Willem DaFoe)

Comments

  1. DanielNovember 11, 2019 at 8:20 AM

    Totally agreed. I liked this a lot more than I expected to. Cinematography and score are great and the performances outside of Norton are really good. It's surprisingly funny, and not in an unintentional way.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brittani BurnhamNovember 11, 2019 at 4:47 PM

      It is, there were a lot more laughs than I was expecting.

      Delete
  2. Often Off TopicNovember 11, 2019 at 8:30 AM

    I'm so glad you liked it, even if you didn't love it. I'm looking forward to this one and the reviews have been disheartening so far.
    You're so right about book mysteries vs movie mysteries, I end up having to rewatch a lot of mystery movies because they move so quickly!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brittani BurnhamNovember 11, 2019 at 4:46 PM

      I hope you like it, I definitely didn't find it as bad as a lot of others apparently did.

      Delete
  3. ChrisNovember 11, 2019 at 8:41 AM

    Seems longer than needed to be but I like Norton so I'm onboard. Since it's released now, I wonder if the film is oscar baity?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brittani BurnhamNovember 11, 2019 at 4:45 PM

      I can't see this getting any Oscar nominations. It's just a standard thriller.

      Delete
  4. keith71_98November 11, 2019 at 11:52 AM

    For some reason I've never been able to muster up enough excitement to see this in the theater. And strangely I can't put my finger on why. I will see it eventually simply because of Gugu. She's one of the most underrated talents in the business.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brittani BurnhamNovember 11, 2019 at 4:44 PM

      I wasn't excited about it either until recently. It came as a bit of a surprise.

      Delete
  5. thevoid99November 11, 2019 at 2:43 PM

    It's likely I'll wait for it on TV as I do like Edward Norton and the people in the film though I'm not in a rush to see it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brittani BurnhamNovember 11, 2019 at 4:43 PM

      It'll make a fine DVD watch as well. I hope you enjoy it!

      Delete
  6. SCOOBNovember 11, 2019 at 9:04 PM

    Awesome post.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thanks for stopping by, let's talk movies!
(comments are moderated to reduce spam)

Popular posts from this blog

Random Ramblings: The Radio Flyer Conundrum

-
Image
Recently, I was talking to someone about who I thought were the best child actors when I was also a child.  Two that really stood out to me were Elijah Wood and Joseph Mazello, and one film those two were in together was called Radio Flyer.  Then I was reminded about the uniqueness of this film. Instead of reviewing the film, I wanted to have an open discussion about the ending. It deals with a tough issue; child abuse. What I’ve noticed is the way that the film ends is interpreted many different ways, and the filmmakers never came forward to say what was right and wrong. I’m interested in hearing everyone’s opinions on it. How did you interpret the ending? Obviously spoiler alerts will follow.. For those of you who haven’t seen the film, the basic premise is this: Two young boys, Mikey (Wood) and Bobby (Mazello) move in with their single mother and her boyfriend, who refers to himself as ‘The King’. It doesn’t take long for The King to start physically abusing Bobby, and the
Read more

Indie Gems: Behind The Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon

-
Image
Passionate about your profession? I had never heard of this film until it ended up on one of Jason's favorite horror movie lists around Halloween. It immediately sounded interesting to me, so of course I threw it in my Netflix queue. (and if I'm just now watching it after adding it around Halloween, you know how ridiculous my queue is) Taylor (Angela Goethals) is a journalist who, along with a film crew decides to follow around a serial killer named Leslie Vernon. (Nathan Baesel) He plans on doing the typical slasher thing - getting a bunch of drunk teens in an abandoned house and knocking them off one by one. He gets advice from a retired serial killer, Eugene (Scott Wilson) and is threatened by a man who's on to him, Doc Holloran (Robert Englund) Taylor and crew are there capturing it all. Leslie Vernon is fucking hilarious to start with, and clearly very passionate about what he does. He tells Taylor all of his secrets and can barely contain his excitemen
Read more

Please join me in my Favorite Movie Titles Blogathon!

-
Image
Earlier this week I made a post where I ran through the letters of the alphabet with my favorite movie titles. There were a few people that suggested I turn it into a blogathon, and I've never done that before. So here goes nothing! Since this is my first attempt at a blogathon, it's all pretty simple, and it's hopefully a quick post that everyone can join in. Rules: 1) Going through the alphabet, list your favorite movie title beginning with each letter.  2) You don't have to necessarily  like the movie to use it's title.  3) Use the banner at the top of this post in yours. 4) Please have submissions in by Friday, May 30th*. (But I'll be honest, if you send them to me after that date, I'll still add them to my post.) You can either leave a link to your post in the comments here or tweet it to me, ( @ramblingfilm )  Thanks everyone! :)  *I had to move the date back a week due to Photobucket threatening me with bandwidth issues. But
Read more