This Review Reveals Minor Details About the Plot.
Main Man
Plot Overview
Gumshoe Lionel “Motherless Brooklyn” Essrog (Edward Norton), afflicted with Tourette's Syndrome but blessed with a keen memory, relentlessly tracks the last case of his dead boss and mentor PI Frank Minna (Bruce Willis.) This leads him to The King's Rooster a Harlem jazz club and to a key colored girl, activist Laura Rose (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) whose family was involved in an étrange mélange (strange mixture) with upcoming 1950s Borough Authority (BA) czar Moses Randolph (Alec Baldwin), his civil engineer brother Paul (Willem Dafoe), and her stand-in father black Billy Rose (Robert Ray Wisdom.) Moses is razing the “slums” that are in actuality working class neighborhoods, in a renewal program to make way for modern highways, bridges, and parks. A few bodies get strewn along the way in the lead-up to the Hamilton Housing Hearing.
Ideology
Because of his speech affliction, Lionel always played second fiddle to Frank who covered for him on interrogations. With Frank dead now, it's a real challenge for lionel to question leads and witnesses who are hostile to begin with. Surprisingly he's got the golden tongue and the PI's knack. Even his Tourette's outbursts at the club don't earn him the usual musicians' censure of audience yak, because they were “in line” with the jazz—no mean feat. For all practical purposes, he had divine assistance. (Prov. 16:1) “The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the LORD.”
(Prov. 16:2)
“All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes; but the LORD
weigheth the spirits.” Moses completely justifies himself
in turning out established residents galore without a care for
their accommodation, compensation or relocation.
He's a man of action (“I'm a builder”) with an eye to
the future and the greater good (“He hates Negroes.”)
Lionel, on the other hand, is more like an ineffable spirit with
the gentle touch. Some trick photography shows him plopping
back on his bed to float weightless in a pool of water. In the
Harlem jazz club, a polite White devotee is brushed off by the lead
player (Michael Kenneth Williams) for asking him where he got his
tremolo on the trumpet. Billy, however, looks approvingly on
Lionel dancing with his mulatto daughter Laura Rose of the calming
touch. God weighs all these ineffables while Moses blithely plows
ahead with his heavy-handed projects.
(Prov. 16:3) “Commit thy works unto the
LORD, and thy thoughts shall be established.” Lionel
painstakingly narrates his serpentine path to solving the
enigma of Frank's demise on his last case. He's got the focus of a Jesuit,
probably derived from his Catholic school upbringing where the sisters
would rap him on the knuckles with a ruler when his mind strayed.
Production Values
“” (2019) was written and directed by Edward Norton who also played lead. He based his screenplay on a reworked novel by Jonathan Lethem. It stars Edward Norton, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, and Alec Baldwin. Baldwin does justice to the character modeled on the real life Robert Moses. The whole cast excelled though many of them had but limited exposure.
MPAA rated it R for language throughout including some sexual references, for brief drug use, and for violence. The film is period perfect in its settings, costumes, and autos. The talk is hard boiled and forget about political correctness. The stage jazz is lively. It's paced just right. The history was representative.
Review Conclusion w/ Christian Recommendation
I seriously enjoyed following the detecting, booing the villains, and escaping for a moment my all too humdrum life. It might be a little too noir for some tastes, but it gives us a welcome change. The acting doesn't let us down, especially the lead role that came off without a hitch. It's gangsta enough for most tastes.
Movie Ratings
Action factor: Well done action scenes. Suitability For Children: Not Suitable for Children of Any Age. Special effects: Well done special effects. Suspense: Keeps you on the edge of your seat. Video Occasion: Fit For a Friday Evening. Overall movie rating: Four stars out of five.
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