Review of Motherless Brooklyn (2019) by Hotelcentral — 16 Aug 2020

Overall, I'd have to say the film is a bit tiresome. It might have done better as a straight detective flick, or as a film delving into a man's mental challenges, but combining the two somehow yields up less than the sum of its parts. Lionel Essrog is an interesting character but should have remained a supporting character. He just doesn't have enough of the right stuff, whatever that might be, to carry the movie on his own.

The plot, of course, doesn't help. It's another corrupt fat cat (ho-hum) steamrolling his way over anyone who opposes him and maybe it's time we consigned fat cats to the genre dung heap. I mean, I'd rather watch a film so tormented that no one, not even Raymond Chandler, can explain it, as long as it's got players like Bogart and Bacall to keep the action entertaining, as in The Big Sleep (1946).

On the other hand, I wouldn't mind getting to see a movie that stuck to the original novel. The author of the original novel described Edward Norton's adaptation by saying, "It’s as if the book was a dream the movie once had and was trying to remember it...".

Not exactly a ringing endorsement.