Motherless Brooklyn is a 2019 American neo-noir crime film written, produced, and directed by Edward Norton, based on the 1999 novel by Jonathan Lethem. Set in 1957 New York City, the film stars Norton as a private investigator with Tourette syndrome, who is determined to solve the murder of his mentor. Motherless Brooklyn also stars Bruce Willis, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Bobby Cannavale, Cherry Jones, Alec Baldwin, Ethan Suplee and Willem Dafoe.
A passion project of Norton's ever since he had read Lethem's novel in 1999, the film took nearly twenty 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, a biography of the New York city planner Robert Moses. Other members of the cast joined by February 2018, and principal photography began that same month.
Motherless Brooklyn premiered at the 46th Telluride Film Festival on August 30, 2019, and was theatrically released in the United States on November 1, 2019, by Warner Bros. Pictures. It was a box office failure, grossing $18.6 million against a $26 million budget. The film received mixed reviews from critics, with praise for its ideas and Norton's performance, but criticism for its length and deviations from its source novel. At the 77th Golden Globe Awards, Motherless Brooklyn received a nomination for Best Original Score.
Motherless Brooklyn is also Bruce Willis' final theatrically released performance (aside from a limited theatrical release for Midnight in the Switchgrass), as he shifted over to a direct-to-video market for the remainder of his career before retiring in 2022.
Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
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