03/07 - RAG Magazine

NorbitCast: Eddie Murphy,Thandie Newton,Cuba Gooding Jr.Director: BrianRobbinsYOU JUSTGOTTA SEE...Norbit plays the same asany other multi-role vehiclethat Eddie Murphy hauls intotheatres every few years.Its general mediocrity is itscharm; never askinganything of us as long aswe don’t ask much from it.Occasionally the movie willsurprise us, mounting aparticularly outlandish featof slapstick antics or maybeopening the throttle on itsvillain to hurl repulsivehilarity at the sadprotagonist. But mostlyNorbit isn’t more than ahappy distraction. We giveMr. Murphy ten dollars andhe’ll dress up in sillycostumes and play sillycharacters for ninetyminutes. It’s a fine deal; onethat isn’t especiallysatisfying, but notespecially offensive either.The set-up is simpleenough: awkward, skinnyNorbit (Eddie Murphy) loves his childhood sweetheart Kate (Thandie Newton), but is tiedby the wedding band to the mountainously large revulsion-cum-wife Rasputia (also playedby Murphy). The set-up, however, gets muddied by impatient screenwriting, throwing in acomplicated con-game to trip up the characters when it’s least necessary. This involvesCuba Gooding Jr. as Kate’s two-faced fiancée and Rasputia’s head-busting brothers ledby Terry Crews.Simple, high-concept premises work when they’re kept to their own quaint devices. Norbitdoesn’t need a half-baked struggle to gain ownership of an orphanage. Such contrivancesare included because of the screenwriters’ distrust in their principle characters. Thethinking follows that if a screenwriter makes more characters and complicates the plotfurther than absolute necessity, the complexity will translate into quality. But they forgetthat beauty is often simple, and that Norbit, Kate, and Rasputia are all entertaining anddimensional enough to fill the frame themselves.But Murphy of course is there to entertain us throughout. And he certainly gives it his all.Norbit’s servile goodness is awkwardly loveable, and his wife, Rasputia, succeeds inbecoming the most repugnant object since vomit. And as in any comedy, extreme versionsof stereotypes work best when there’s a sad truth behind them. We’ve seen lesser versionsof Norbits and Rasputias in every one of our neighborhoods. And Director Brian Robbinsplays on this truthfulness by making Norbit’s town a place of sunny neutrality. There’s notitle or season to it; just sun, green grass, the town and the suburbs. We laugh at Rasputiabecause it’s mean to laugh at the real-life versions of her walking their dogs past ourmailboxes. And when it comes to slapstick, she works like a tube of lit dynamite. When shebarrels into a picnic table, it explodes into a shower of splinters. At one point she plowsthrough the mailman. He returns several scenes later with a broken arm, a concussion anda bruised stomach. In Iraq, Rasputia would be called a weapon of mass destruction.She’s a villain that’s fun to hate and Thandie Newton is an easy figure to love. Norbitdelights as the bumbling fulcrum that pivots the two back and forth. The film works fine thisway, despite its thick contrivances, and succeeds in its own blandly outrageous decency.- Sam Osbornwww.RAGmagazine.com | 53