Last week I watched the fabulous “Knives Out” a homage to the whodunnit. In Motherless Brooklyn we have another modern take on a classic genre, as Edward Norton’s passion project delivers a stylish “gumshoe” detective drama.
This well told, well made, melodic paced drama sees Norton play Lionel Essrog a smart, hardworking private detective who struggles to combat his tourette’s style “affliction”, which for the first 10 minutes feels like it will be distracting, to Norton’s credit becomes a charming quirk. Lionel takes on the case to find the killers of his inspirational father figure which leads him into the world of power obsessed officials running corrupt city departments to deliver their “vision” of change.
The story fizzes along well, although, maybe as expected in a 144 minute film, has a baggy 20 minutes as we head into the final act, Norton’s voiceover evokes memories of classic 50’s detective dramas and the story twists and turns its way to a clever conclusion.
Norton is well supported by a strong cast, especially Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Laura Rose and Alec Bladwin as power driven city official Moses Randolph.
Motherless Brooklyn is a well made, well told story, evoking classic detective drama with a modern take. Norton carries the film well with a super central performance, dust off the trench coat and hat and go check it out
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