Webbready

Norbit (2007)

Distributed by: DreamWorks Pictures
Director: Brian Robbins
Screenwriter: Eddie Murphy, Charlie Murphy

On Monday, I went to the movie theater upon invitation to see Norbit. The last time I had been to the cinema, I saw Dreamgirls and was pleasant way to spend a few hours.

Norbit is a disaster.

To be fair, there are many other movies within the past fifteen years starring Eddie Murphy that have been unfairly targeted by movie critics in general. Bowfinger, though, not great, has plenty of moments of humor. Holy Man was severely underrated. Even the Haunted Mansion was a good family film, in my opinion.

The critics, however, are right about Norbit. This movie is terrible, easily the worst movie of Eddie Murphy’s career. It makes The Adventures of Pluto Nash funny in comparison.

The plot is at once simple and too complicated for its own good. A man named Norbit (Eddie Murphy) is trapped in a loveless marriage to the angry, violent, and corpulent Rasputia (also played by Eddie Murphy), and employed by her three equally large and bullying brothers (Terry Crews, Clifton Powell, Lester Speight). A childhood friend of Norbit, Kate, (Thandie Newton) returns to town on business, and he is drawn to her, in spite of her engagement to another man (Cuba Gooding, Jr.). However, Norbit’s attraction runs afoul of both his wife, and her brothers’ nefarious plans, and Norbit is made into a pawn to further their goals.

I will admit there are bright spots in this movie. The acting in this movie is decent, although sadly every member of the cast has clearly shown the ability to act better than this movie allows. Every person does put an effort into their performances, even if the writing cannot make it believable. The makeup is outstanding, leaps and bounds beyond The Nutty Professor. Last, the final fourth of the movie, the climax, did elicit a few laughs from me, although it was from the subtext rather than the surface level of what was happening on screen.

The central flaws, though, cannot overcome these flashes of better quality. One of the major problems of this movie is that the writing relies on the audience not only to suspend disbelief, but all forms of logic, common sense, and observable human behavior. Are we to believe that Norbit, a milquetoast but one of normal mental capacity, is smart enough to push paperwork and process the forms or the Latimores, but not smart enough to figure out a way to “escape” from his wife? Are we to believe that Norbit and Kate would still hold torches for each other after a 30 year separation? Are we to believe that Kate is so easily fooled by others performances that she cannot even think for herself? Are we to believe that the adult Rasputia has any reason to be married to Norbit?

Furthermore, the writers of movie equate pain and humiliation with humor, when the two are quite distinct, even though they overlap. Hitting someone in the head unintentionally with a rubber ball can be funny. Intentionally hitting someone in the head with a speaker is not funny, especially when the actions that precede this action are rather lighthearted. Although later in the movie, the over-the-top zaniness of physical comedy allows for a few chuckles, for much of the movie, it is simply mean-spirited. The root of comedy is truth, but there is no truth in this movie.

A better director, though, could have turned this formulaic script into something funny. In fact, the introduction of this movie would have made a far better movie than what played out on screen afterward. The idea of a skinny, geeky orphan, who is an outcast, who then finds companionship with a girl who is an outcast because she isn’t ladylike, would have been a better movie. The Latimores, as portrayed as adults, are simply annoying.

The second problem is that this movie is also horrendously cast. Eddie Murphy looks younger than his age, to be sure, but I find it impossible to believe that Norbit was supposedly the same age as Thandie Newton’s Kate. It is also troubling that all the “good” people of this film are thin and most of the “bad” characters of this film are stocky or overweight. I do not expect there to be a perfect balance of people of all shapes on all sides, but this movie reaches back to the old stereotypes that “ugly” people are evil, which really undercuts its message of not running away from one’s problems and standing up for oneself.