Norbit

Plot: Orphaned Norbit(Eddie Murphy) raised by Mr. Wong(Eddie Murphy) grows up to marry fat and controlling Rasputia Latimore( Eddie Murphy). Stuck in an unhappy marriage, Norbit's feelings for childhood playmate Kate (Thandie Newton) is re-kindled when she moves back to town. But BIG trouble looms in the form of Rasputia and her criminally inclined brothers.

So, does Eddie Murphy hate fat people? Given the fact that Norbit is a relentless 1 joke movie, said joke being Murphy encased and buried under several layers of latex as a gargantually repulsive obese woman who's a foul mouthed shrew and the villain of the movie, one can't be blamed for arriving at that rather despairing conclusion.

Fat characters saved Murphy.

After a heavenly reign at the box office in the '80s, the 90's saw Murphy careening into mediocrity with lack lustre fare like Boomerang, A Distinguished Gentleman, Vampire In Brooklyn and Suck Ass sequels to his career defining flicks like 48hrs and Beverly Hills Cop.

Then came The Nutty Professor....

Craftily re-working the classic Jerry Lewis hit, an odd specimen in the Lewis ouevre for its remarkable perception and depth not to mention a sly parody of one time partner Dean Martin, into a riotous entry in the loud, proud and bawdy tradition of African American comedies, Murphy's remake remade Lewis' geeky, buck toothed nerd into a humungously obese one. Buried and unrecognisable under heaps of mock fat, Murphy's genius was in fashioning a sweet and lovable protagonist we could all empathise with as the titular character faces scorn and derision from a weight obsessed society. Even without all that, the movie still earns its place in my personal Hall Of Comedic Fame by way of a 15 minute dinner sequence that is Pure Gold and a testimony to Murphy's prodigious talent:

Professor Sherman Klump is having dinner with his equally generously endowed family that includes Father, Mother, Brother, Grandmother and Nephew. It takes a good minute of rib tickling jokes before it sinks into your conciousness that with the exception of the Nephew, played by a young boy, flatulent Father, matronly Mother, cantankerous Granny and raunchy Brother, not to mention, fat and lovable Sherman himself are ALL Murphy. That's 5 Eddie Murphys you see, each with his/her own distinctive personality, playing off one another in distinctive voices.

That's Oscar worthy stuff right there, folks.

So it's strange, beyond strange, that Norbit should have as it's central antagonist, an equally bloated caricature of the loud, bawdy Black Woman with none of the warmth and charm of Murphy's first foray into Fat land.

And speaking of caricatures, Norbit is choc a-block of them: Said Fat, Insecure Shrew, 3 Low Life criminal brothers, 2 pimps complete with flashy clothing and skanky "ho"entourage. And that's just covering the Black Stereotype. Murphy also plays Mr.Wong, the Chinese owner of an orphanage cum restaurant who takes in the abandoned Norbit. Mr.Wong openly admits he "sold his first wife back in Shanghai for a yak". Upon being called a racist he retorts, "Yes. I racist. I don't like Blacks and I don't like Jews. But Jews and Blacks like Chinese food. Go figure".

I'm not sure if racial slurs against blacks are made more palatable when delivered by an African American disguised as an Asian, but a film which mines its laughs solely from having grotesquely obese flesh thrust in my face and forcing me to watch it manoeuvre itself into spaces not built to accommodate it is wearying. There's only so much to chuckle at watching Rasputia trying to squeeze into her car, her breasts brushing against the steering wheel, setting off the horn( honking with yer honkers, git it? Hee Haw!), or careening down a slide in a water park, creating tsunami sized waves in the pool and dislodging all water from it.

Throw in a plot with suicidal predictability and seeing Marlon Wayans and Cuba Cooding Jr. slumming in such scrape-the-barrell dreck is enough to send you scurrying to the fridge to binge -eat in depression.

Is Murphy making a commentary on the spiralling rate of obesity in the US (and pretty much spreading to the rest of the world) by depicting Rasputia's perennial state of discontent, bitterness and misery while contrasting that against Skinny Norbit's happily after ending to skinnier Kate. Stay Fat, Stay Sad?

Or is Norbit a rebuttal to all the suffocating political correctness that's permeating modern entertaintment?

Alas, I think Norbit has no such lofty ambitions.

There's take after take of Rasputia jumping on Norbit in a sexual frenzy and crashing into a bed that breaks on impact.

I fear Murphy made this movie so that when someone tells him to "go fuck himself" he can smile and retort "Been there, done that".

Hee Hee Hee...