In “Motherless Brooklyn,” Edward Norton plays a private detective in 1950s New York who struggles with not just a city-wide conspiracy of corruption and murder, but also his own battle with Tourette’s Syndrome.
It’s an ambitious performance and adaptation by Norton, as the Oscar nominee is directing and writing “Motherless Brooklyn” based on Jonathan Lethem’s acclaimed neo-noir novel from 1999. This is just Norton’s second film as a director and his first in 19 years.
Thankfully he’s assembled an impressive cast that includes Bruce Willis, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Bobby Cannavale, Cherry Jones, Michael Kenneth Williams, Leslie Mann, Ethan Suplee, Dallas Roberts, Josh Pais, Robert Ray Wisdom, Fisher Stevens, Willem Dafoe and Alec Baldwin as the film’s kingpin.