Story of movie Norbit : Norbit is a 2007 American comedy film, directed by Brian Robbins, and co-written by, co-produced by, and starring Eddie Murphy. The film co-stars Thandie Newton, Terry Crews, Cuba Gooding Jr., Eddie Griffin, Katt Williams, Marlon Wayans, and Charlie Murphy. It was released by DreamWorks and Paramount Pictures on February 9, 2007.
| Norbit | |
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Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Brian Robbins |
| Produced by |
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| Screenplay by |
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| Story by |
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| Starring |
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| Narrated by | Tone Man |
| Music by | David Newman |
| Cinematography | Clark Mathis |
| Edited by | Ned Bastille |
Production company |
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| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
Release date |
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Running time | 102 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $60 million |
| Box office | $159.3 million |
The film was negatively received by critics and earned Murphy three Golden Raspberry Awards, out of the film's eight total nominations. However, it was a commercial success and received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Makeup and Hairstyling.
Screenplay
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Norbit Albert Rice (Eddie Murphy) and Kate Thomas (Thandie Newton) are best friends as children at an orphanage, which doubles as a Chinese restaurant owned by their father figure Hangten Wong (Murphy), but are separated when Kate gets adopted by an unnamed family. Five years later, while being bullied by twins at a playground, Norbit is saved by a tough, overweight girl named Rasputia Latimore (Murphy), who scares him into being her boyfriend and in turn protects him from the bullies. She protects Norbit from the other children and intimidates them into letting Norbit play with them. Years later, as adults, Rasputia's bullying nature gets worse as she grows up to be a grumpy, arrogant, vindictive, and mean-spirited woman.
She eventually pressures Norbit into marrying her and bullies, insults and controls him to make sure that she keeps him all to herself. Norbit is also belittled by Rasputia's older brothers Big Black Jack (Terry Crews), Blue (Lester 'Rasta' Speight), and Earl (Clifton Powell), working as a bookkeeper at their local building company. The Latimore brothers also run a "security business" and instill fear in everyone in the town except Mr. Wong, who is the only person in the community that doesn't put up with their antics and refuses to sell his business to them.
When Norbit discovers that Rasputia is cheating on him with her dance instructor Buster Perkin (Marlon Wayans), she carelessly brushes it off like nothing happened. Norbit yells at Rasputia and she becomes angered and chases him a couple of blocks. He escapes her and throws away his wedding ring due to her deception. Norbit vents his anger over Rasputia's infidelity at a puppet show for the children at the orphanage. Unexpectedly, during the show, Norbit sees Kate for the first time since childhood. Stunned by her return, his affection for her reignites while he learns she is buying Mr. Wong's orphanage, but he is disappointed to find out the following Tuesday that she is now engaged to Deion Hughes (Cuba Gooding Jr.).
With help from his two ex-pimp friends Pope Sweet Jesus (Eddie Griffin) and Lord Have Mercy (Katt Williams) and the other townspeople, Norbit manages to meet up with Kate without Rasputia's knowledge. Revealed to be a crooked businessman and gold digger, Deion helps the Latimore brothers in their plan to turn the orphanage into a strip club called Nipplopolis to get a cut in the profit. The Latimore brothers dupe Norbit into getting Kate to sign papers to renew the restaurant's liquor license and put it in the Latimores' name. Norbit's meeting with Kate leads to him helping her rehearse her wedding, where a kiss between the two of them makes her reconsider getting married. When Norbit returns home, he learns that Rasputia witnessed the whole thing (as she drove past and fainted). She threatens to kill Kate if she ever sees Norbit with her again.
Kate confronts Norbit after finding out about the deal and sees him in the window of the basement, where he has been locked away by a villainous Rasputia. Norbit reluctantly insults Kate, deliberately driving her away so that Rasputia will not follow through with her previous threat to kill Kate. Satisfied with Norbit hurting Kate's feelings, Rasputia adds that Norbit played Kate and has been setting her up since the first day she came back to town. Heartbroken, Kate runs away and Rasputia relishes in her sadness, laughing and mocking her. Fed up with the stress he is under, Norbit decides to leave town for good, but first tries to warn Kate about Deion, but she ignores him.
After that, the Latimores reveal their evil plan to Norbit and lock him up in the basement again and Blue is chosen by Rasputia to stay and keep watch. After the other Latimores leave to go to the wedding, Norbit escapes from the basement and past Blue's guard and races to the church on his bicycle. Though the Latimores try to stop him, Norbit reaches the church and informs Kate of Deion's gold digging schemes. Unfortunately, his proof of Deion's divorce settlements were destroyed in the process due to him falling into a pond trying to escape the clutches of the Latimores. Norbit presents further evidence by bringing in Deion's ex-wives and children show up in person, with each of them revealing conflicting tales about him. Deion declares defeat and runs off.
Furious that their plans are permanently ruined, the Latimore brothers try to attack Norbit before finding the townspeople standing up against them. In a blind rage, Rasputia fights her way through the crowd with a spade and prepares to attack Norbit, but she runs away after being harpooned in the rear by Mr. Wong, with her brothers are subsequently chased out of town. After Kate avows her love for Norbit with a passionate kiss, the two reconcile and Norbit officially divorces Rasputia, using her affair with Buster and her attempted murder of him as grounds.
Norbit and Kate buy the orphanage and get married under the same tree where they once played as children. Rasputia and her brothers move to Mexico where they open up their strip club, where Rasputia becomes their most popular and lucrative stripper.
- Eddie Murphy as:
- Norbit Rice, a shy but likable nerd
- Rasputia Latimore, a morbidly obese, possessive, and tyrannical woman, who is Norbit's abusive wife
- Hangten Wong, the gruff yet kind-hearted owner of the orphanage where Norbit and Kate met as children
- Thandie Newton as Kate Thomas, Norbit's childhood best friend, in whom he has a romantic interest
- Terry Crews as Big Black Jack Latimore, Rasputia's eldest brother and Henchman
- Lester "Rasta" Speight as Blue Latimore, Rasputia's second eldest brother and Henchman
- Clifton Powell as Earl Latimore, Rasputia's third eldest brother and Henchman
- Cuba Gooding Jr. as Deion Hughes, Kate's fiancé
- Eddie Griffin as Pope Sweet Jesus, an ex-pimp and Norbit's friend
- Katt Williams as Lord Have Mercy, Pope's sidekick and friend
- Khamani Griffin as Young Norbit (age 5)
- Austin Reid as Young Norbit (age 10)
- Jonathan Robinson as Young Norbit (age 17)
- Floyd Levine as Abe, the tailor.
- Lindsey Sims-Lewis as Young Rasputia (age 10)
- Yves Lola St. Vil as Young Rasputia (age 17)
- China Anderson as young Kate (age 5)
- Anthony Russell as Sam Giovanni, the Italian owner of Giovanni's
- Pat Crawford Brown as Mrs. Henderson, an elderly woman
- Jeanette Miller as Mrs. Coleman, an elderly woman
- Michael Colyar as Morris, the barber
- Marlon Wayans as Buster "Bust-A-Move" Perkin, Rasputia's tap dancing instructor with whom Rasputia has an affair
- Richard Gant as The Preacher
- Alexis Rhee as Mrs. Ling Ling Wong, Mr. Wong's wife
- Kristen Schaal as Event Organizer
- Charlie Murphy (voice) as Lloyd the Dog, Mrs. Henderson's pet Pug dog (credited as Floyd the Dog)
- Tone Man as Narrator (voice)
Norbit was the first of three films where director Brian Robbins and Eddie Murphy worked together. They later collaborated for Meet Dave and A Thousand Words. In the case of the first two movies he starred in working with Robbins, Murphy did multiple characters and worked in body costumes.
Critical response
Norbit was panned by critics. Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a rating of 9%, based on 123 reviews, with the site's consensus reading, "Coming off his Oscar-nominated performance in Dreamgirls, the talented-but-inconsistent Eddie Murphy plays three roles in Norbit, a cruel, crass, stereotype-filled comedy that's more depressing than funny." Metacritic gave the movie a score of 27 out of 100, based on reviews from 26 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film a B grade, with under eighteens (28% of those surveyed) giving it a B+ grade.
Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle gave the movie a positive review, suggesting that Norbit might help Murphy's chances of winning an Oscar for his role in Dreamgirls, saying that his work playing three distinct characters in Norbit is more impressive than anything he did in Dreamgirls. Others suggested it might hurt his chances. Ultimately, Alan Arkin won the award for Best Supporting Actor.
Josh Tyler of Cinemablend.com gave the movie a mostly negative review, in which he described parts of the film as "pretty despicable" and stated that "the plot relies on the idea that being fat also means you’re a horrible bitch." However, he pointed out that "some of it’s also kind of sweet. Eddie’s really quite good as Norbit, the character is sympathetic and funny. He has a strange sort of perfect chemistry with Thandie Newton, and that’s just not something I would have expected." Liz Braun of Jam! Movies described Norbit as "mostly blubber jokes about how fat Rasputia really is" but said that "the movie is not without genuine laughs. Most of those laughs are generated by the other actors." In regard to the "terrifying" character Rasputia, she went so far as to say that the film "tends to confirm one's worst suspicions about Murphy and what appears to be his general fear and loathing of women. The Rasputia gag gets a little freaky if you think about it too much. And you wouldn't want to dwell on how much Thandie Newton looks like a slender boy in her role as Norbit's true love, either. So don't."
Black activists took issue with Eddie Murphy's portrayal of the character Rasputia, calling Norbit "just the latest around a black man dressing up as an unsophisticated, overweight black woman."
Box office
Norbit was a success at the box office. It opened to $34.2 million in the United States, and was Eddie Murphy's 14th #1 box office opener. The film earned $95,673,607 at the North American domestic box office, and $63,639,954 in other markets, for a total of $159,313,561 worldwide. The film was released in the United Kingdom on March 9, 2007, and topped the country's box office for the next two weekends, before being overtaken by 300.
Accolades
Norbit was nominated for eight Golden Raspberry Awards including Worst Picture, and won three awards, all for Eddie Murphy as three different characters. The film was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Makeup.
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