You know that "Motherless Brooklyn" is going to be a different kind of crime movie from the brilliant opening sequence which introduces us to its narrating anti-hero, a Private Eye with Tourette's Syndrome, played by the film's director, Edward Norton. The sequence is superbly set up but it doesn't explain anything and the bad guys in the scene are shot in shadow and in ends with a killing; yes, we know this movie is going to be 'different'. The period is the late fifties, perfectly captured in Beth Mickle's design and beautifully shot by the great Dick Pope which gives the film the noirish look Norton is after and it's very well cast with Norton himself terrific as the Tourette's inflicted shamus. So far so good.
Unfortunately the plot, (corruption in high places), is old hat and as a director Norton is more interested in flash than form; even his use of a hard-boiled narration is a cliche. This is a film eager to be liked but wanting to be original at the same time and failing at it. It's certainly not dismissible; Norton, when he's good, as he is here, is always worth watching and it is certainly a beautiful looking picture. It's just that with a better script, (which Norton also wrote from Jonathan Letham's novel), it could have been so much better and at almost two and a half hours, it's way too long.
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