Brooklyn Owes the Charmer

I am not necessarily a big Jonathan Lethem fan, although I did read and enjoy his first novel. Gun with Occasional Music, about a private eye who is a gene-modified kangaroo who has a gun with its own theme music. But I was definitely interested in seeing Motherless Brooklyn (2019).

It was written by, directed by, and stars Ed Norton, as a private eye with Tourette's Syndrome. He works with a couple of other guys for Bruce Willis' detective agency. Willis has them wait outside while he goes up to an apartment, then he calls Norton at a phone booth and hides the receiver in a drawer, so Norton can hear the meeting. So Willis meets up with a few lawyer types and a few bruiser types, and they discuss something he has and wants money for - but it isn't clear what it is. Only that a black secretary is involved. When the bruisers drag Willis out, his guys follow him - but get there too late, They have rubbed him out. Norton takes his hat and coat.

Willis' wife is not too shook up. She knew he was taking too many risks. The other boys at the agency want to carry on, but drop this case - there's nothing to grab onto. But Norton, now wearing Willis' hat and coat, wants to find the guys who did this. This, and the thing with the wife, have distinct shades of The Maltese Falcon. 

The black secretary turns out to be Gugu Mbatha-Raw, who takes notes at Borough Authority meetings. The BA is run by a Robert Moses type bigot and power broker played by Alec Baldwin. But Mbatha-Raw is also a bit of a community activist, working with a Jane Jacobs type gentrification fighter, Cherry Jones. So there's more than a touch of Chinatown, as well.

Throughout this all, Norton twitches, mutters, and shouts nonsense and curses, many aimed at himself. I don't know if this is a good representation of Tourette's but nobody gives him any trouble about it. At one point Baldwin mentions his "condition", and when Norton gets defensive, he says he means his habit of sticking his nose where it doesn't belong. The other guys at the agency call him "Freakshow", but they all come from the same orphanage.

The movie has a great 1950s look (departing from the novel, which is set "today"). There's also some good jazz in the soundtrack, and a jazz man modeled after Miles Davis played by Michael K. Williams, He befriends Norton, and shares a jazz cigarette with him - helps calm the tics.

So I guess this bombed, but we enjoyed it. It's a bit all over the place, but that's part of the fun. Another part is the villain is so rotten - and his biggest crime is building parks in NYC.