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Norbit: Barley a PG-13 movie |
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Written by Colin Covert, McClatchy-Tribune
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Wednesday, 07 February 2007 |
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NORBIT
1 ½ stars
Starring: Eddie Murphy, Thandie Newton
Directed by: Brian Robbins
Rating: PG-13 for crude and sexual humor, some nudity and language.
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"Norbit" is a movie at the top of the bottom rank of comedies.
The film, which stars Eddie Murphy in the roles of a hapless nerd Norbit Rice and his obese, domineering wife, Rasputia, is little more than a string of crass "yo momma" jokes. It is also, in a brain-damaging way, sporadically funny. Most important, it demonstrates that even when working with low-grade material, Murphy can be a superb actor.
The film begins with newborn Norbit thrown from a speeding car at the door of the Golden Wonton Restaurant and Orphanage. The boy is raised by the brusque Mr. Wong (Murphy again), who makes a habit of tossing Norbit's pets in the stir fry.
The hulking Rasputia rescues terminally insecure Norbit from schoolyard bullies, recruits him as her boyfriend and frog-marches him to the altar a few years later.
She provides him with a readymade family among her thuggish brothers and a job as bookkeeper in their shady construction firm. She also abuses him mercilessly, tongue-lashing him in public and privately squashing him in connubial scenarios that would give a memory-foam mattress images it would rather forget.''
Norbit, whose only encounter with romance was a childhood crush on his fellow orphan Kate, meekly accepts the situation. When Kate reappears in the form of the radiant Thandie Newton, something's got to give.
Murphy wrote the script with his brother Charles, a strong argument against nepotism. On the story level, this is a crude, slapped-together piece of work, with clumsy conflicts between paper-thin characters, and precious few actual jokes (there is a vast difference between a fart and a fart joke).
The film seamlessly interweaves the various Eddie Murphy characters, but the slapstick is punishing and the overall tone is rather cruel. For no persuasive reason, there are a couple of pimps prominently featured in the story. They are jarringly out of place in a film shot on a backlot representing generic small-town America, and their dialog pushes the boundaries of what's acceptable in a PG-13 film. ("Norbit" was re-edited after the ratings board handed it an R, but the initial ruling still feels about right.)
That said, Murphy's three performances are richly imaginative. As the title character, a cringing bumpkin with `70s eyeglasses and an egg-shaped Afro, Murphy forces his jaw into a "Sling Blade" jut and speaks in a tone of whining apology. Under Rick Baker's brilliantly designed makeup, Murphy makes Mr. Wong a feisty old codger who croaks politically incorrect wisecracks and moves with the body language of an arthritic black belt.
And as the swaggering, domineering harridan Rasputia, he creates a classic comic monstrosity. Acting from beneath a disturbingly realistic fat suit, he's over-the-top grotesque yet so lifelike he could be a trance medium channeling another personality. Every ornery scowl and glower and parabolic frown speaks volumes. In the course of a three-beat take Murphy can communicate a dozen shades of arrogance, cunning and suspicion.
Let's hope that along with the accolades Murphy is receiving for his performance as a burned-out pop star in "Dreamgirls" better scripts begin coming his way. It's a shame to see performing talent like this squandered, even on a vehicle he created himself.
___
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