Motherless Brooklyn

New York, 1957. Lionel Essrog, a private investigator with Tourette syndrome, looks into the murder of his mentor. The trail leads to urban renewal plans and the man reshaping the city. Edward Norton directed, wrote and starred, from Jonathan Lethem's 1999 novel. Norton carried the project for nearly twenty years. He acquired the rights in 1998 after American History X and finished the screenplay in 2012. Moving the story from the nineties to the fifties was deliberate; he felt the characters' hardboiled detective style fitted that era better. He changed the novel's plot substantially, adding a new conspiracy about urban renewal and the character Moses Randolph, drawn from the controversial planner Robert Moses. There is a personal side to it: Norton is the grandson of James Rouse, a planner who championed affordable housing. It grossed 18.6 million dollars against a 26 million budget. Reviews were mixed. Norton's performance and the political themes were praised while the 144-minute running time and the complexity of the narrative were criticised. It was nominated for the Golden Globe for Best Original Score. Who it is for: viewers who like noir and stories about city politics. Who it is not for: readers of the novel. The film changes its period, its plot and its subject, and what remains is the character.