Set some year in the 1950s in New York City, Lionel Essrog (Edward Norton) owns and works a detective agency alongside Gilbert Coney (Ethan Suplee), Danny Fantl (Dallas Roberts), and Tony Vermonte (Bobby Cannavale). Their boss, Frank Minna (Bruce Willis), found them when they were being raised in the orphanages and rescued them, and now they all work for him. Lionel is kind and smart, but also plagued by Tourette’s syndrome which makes him seem strange and as such he leads a fairly isolated life. But alongside his Tourette’s also come things like perfect recall and memory which make him good at detective work.
Frank has been at work on a secret job and is taking a big, secret meeting for it – he asks Lionel and Gilbert to shadow him in case it goes south. Lionel listens over the phone as Frank presents some important information that is threatening some sort of big deal to a group of men – William Lieberman (Josh Pais), Lou (Fisher Stevens), and an extremely large henchman. They ask Frank where the original copies are, and Frank tries to negotiate a high price for them, so the men drag him out to force him to take them to the originals. Lionel and Gilbert follow in their car, and arrive just in time to see Frank being shot.
Motherless Brooklyn is a 2019 American neo-noir crime film written, produced and directed by Edward Norton, based on the 1999 novel of the same name by Jonathan Lethem. Set in New York City in 1957, the film follows a private investigator with Tourette syndrome, who is determined to solve the murder of his mentor. Along with Norton, the film also stars Bruce Willis, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Bobby Cannavale, Cherry Jones, Alec Baldwin and Willem Dafoe.
A passion project of Norton’s ever since he read Lethem’s novel in 1999, the film took nearly 20 years to go into production. Although the book is set in contemporary times, Norton felt the plot and dialogue lent themselves more to a noir setting — moving it to the 1950s, with many added plot points inspired by The Power Broker. Other members of the cast joined by February 2018, and principal photography began that same month.
The film had its world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival on August 30, 2019, and was released in the United States on November 1, 2019, by Warner Bros. Pictures. It received mixed reviews from critics, with praise for Norton’s performance and the film’s ideas, but criticism for its length, and was a box office failure, grossing $24 million on its $26 million budget. At the 77th Golden Globe Awards, the film received a nomination for Best Original Score.
Motherless Brooklyn (2019)
Directed by: Edward Norton
Starring: Edward Norton, Bruce Willis, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Bobby Cannavale, Cherry Jones, Alec Baldwin, Willem Dafoe, Deborah Unger, Dallas Roberts, Bobby Cannavale, Ethan Suplee, Fisher Stevens
Screenplay by: Edward Norton
Production Design by: Beth Mickle
Cinematography by: Dick Pope
Film Editing by: Joe Klotz
Costume Design by: Amy Roth
Set Decoration by: Kara Zeigon
Art Direction by: Michael Ahern
Music by: Daniel Pemberton
MPAA Rating: R for language throughout including some sexual references, brief drug use, and violence.
Distributed by: Warner Bros. Pictures
Release Date: November 1, 2019
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