Motherless Brooklyn review: It’s beautifully cast and very good indeed

Motherless Brooklyn                                                             Cert: 15, 2hrs 24mins

Rating:

Film noir – that knowing mix of murder, a crumpled private investigator in a brimmed hat and always, but always, a deadly dame – is one of my favourite genres. The classics – The Big Sleep, Double Indemnity, The Third Man – are in black and white, of course. 

So much better for the creative use of shadow, another vital ingredient. But every now and then along comes a modern film that uses colour and visual effects and yet still celebrates the genre nearly as effectively as its historic counterparts. 

Motherless Brooklyn – adapted from a Jonathan Lethem novel and written, directed by and starring Edward Norton – is one of those films.

The recreation of Fifties New York is deliciously convincing, Gugu Mbatha-Raw’s (above with Edward Norton) supporting performance as Laura Rose is a touching joy

The recreation of Fifties New York is deliciously convincing, Gugu Mbatha-Raw’s (above with Edward Norton) supporting performance as Laura Rose is a touching joy

Yes, it has a few things wrong with it. The film is almost two-and-a-half hours long, which is at least 30 minutes too much, and it’s a shame – at least for those of us who hope Bruce Willis has at least one good film left in him – that the great man makes such an early exit. 

But there’s so much still to enjoy here: the recreation of Fifties New York is deliciously convincing, Gugu Mbatha-Raw’s supporting performance as Laura Rose is a touching joy and the soundtrack – a mix of cool jazz, a Thom Yorke song and Daniel Pemberton’s hauntingly atmospheric score – is wonderful.

But there’s one other big obstacle that has to be overcome. The central character of Lionel Essrog, the private detective played by Norton, has Tourette’s. For a disconcerting while it looks as if we’re in for Raymond Chandler meets Rain Man (yes, I know Dustin Hoffman’s character was autistic) as we get used to Lionel’s portfolio of tics – the fidgeting, the repetitive touching, the loud and often very funny outbursts based on words he’s just heard. 

What ensues involves a box of matches and a Harlem jazz club. This is where Alec Baldwin (above) comes in, playing the almost Trumpian figure of Moses Randolph

What ensues involves a box of matches and a Harlem jazz club. This is where Alec Baldwin (above) comes in, playing the almost Trumpian figure of Moses Randolph

‘It’s like a piece of my head broke off and kept joyriding me for kicks,’ is how the character himself explains it, but it does bring with it one distinct advantage: ‘If there’s one thing my pain-in-the-ass brain knows how to do, it’s listen and remember.’

For an actor as serious and committed as Norton – Brad Pitt’s co-star in Fight Club, of course – this looks like an invitation to go wildly over the top, but as the mystery begins to unfold he reins it in. This, we slowly realise, is going to work.

Lionel works for Frank Minna (Willis) at the sort of detective agency that comes straight out of noir central casting: wood-lined, glass doors, blinds. But Frank is more than a boss to Lionel, he’s almost a father figure, having taken him under his wing. 

Lionel (Norton) has a complicated relationship with Laura Rose (Mbatha-Raw, above with Cherry Jones) who works for an activist group campaigning against slum clearances

Lionel (Norton) has a complicated relationship with Laura Rose (Mbatha-Raw, above with Cherry Jones) who works for an activist group campaigning against slum clearances

So when something goes badly wrong for Frank, Lionel takes it personally and determines – as someone always has to in film noir – to get to the bottom of the inevitably murky goings-on.

What ensues involves a box of matches, a Harlem jazz club and a poignantly complicated relationship with the lovely Laura Rose, who works for an activist group campaigning against slum clearances. 

This, we’re pretty sure, is where Alec Baldwin is going to come in, playing the almost Trumpian figure of Moses Randolph, a man with big plans for the city.

Lionel works for Frank Minna (Bruce Willis) at the sort of detective agency that comes straight out of noir central casting: wood-lined, glass doors, blinds

Lionel works for Frank Minna (Bruce Willis) at the sort of detective agency that comes straight out of noir central casting: wood-lined, glass doors, blinds

Lionel’s tics have always hampered his relationships with women – in fact, their presence often makes things worse – so his battle to survive a slow dance with Laura without ruining it is one of the film’s highlights. 

It’s partly Dick Pope’s cinematography, partly Wynton Marsalis’s haunting, Miles Davis-style trumpet, partly our hope that slow jazz and the love of a kind woman will soothe Lionel’s misfiring brain. What a shame he’s been lying to her…

Too long and occasionally self-indulgent Motherless Brooklyn may be, but it’s also beautifully cast and very good indeed.

 

ALSO OUT THIS WEEK

 

Ordinary Love (12A)

Rating:

This is the story of a middle-aged couple whose long marriage comes under strain when the wife is diagnosed with cancer. Lesley Manville and Liam Neeson are a classy combination that ordinarily I’d give a lot of money to see, but this is a hard old slog, albeit a well-acted one. 

Lesley Manville and Liam Neeson (above) are a classy combination that ordinarily I’d give a lot of money to see, but this is a hard old slog, albeit a well-acted one

Lesley Manville and Liam Neeson (above) are a classy combination that ordinarily I’d give a lot of money to see, but this is a hard old slog, albeit a well-acted one

It’s hampered by our familiarity with the cancer story (disbelief, operation, chemo, hair-loss, scans, etc) and by the frustratingly under-explained revelation that this is not the first time their marriage has been tested by terrible events. 

Lucy In The Sky (15)

Rating:

This initially shapes up nicely thanks to Natalie Portman’s performance as Lucy, a star astronaut who struggles to adapt to ordinary domestic life when she returns to Earth. But just when – with the help of co-star John Hamm – director Noah Hawley is beginning to say some quite interesting things about the damaging hormonal high potentially produced by space travel, the film falls apart – rather like the central character – and descends into near-endless melodramatic tedium. 

Honey Boy (15)

Rating:

Shia LaBeouf was a child actor himself so is well placed to pen the screenplay for this film about Otis, an angry, alcoholic young actor (Lucas Hedges) entering rehab and looking back to where it all started to go wrong. 

Which, of course, was his days as a child actor when his under-achieving, recovering alcoholic father, played by LaBeouf himself, served as his official chaperone. In other words, 12-year-old Otis – nicely played by Noah Jupe – was employing his own father. 

It has a handful of touching and funny moments but LaBeouf’s intense performance makes it hard work. 

The Party’s Just Beginning (15)

Rating:

After the likes of Jumanji, former Doctor Who assistant Karen Gillan is now a Hollywood star. But she returns to her Inverness roots with this modest offering – which she writes, directs and stars in – about a young woman whose life falls apart after her best friend’s suicide due to hard drinking, casual sex and endless fish suppers. 

The bottom line is that this under-developed project wouldn’t be getting a release without Gillan’s name. 

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk