Norbit

Norbit Albert Rice (Eddie Murphy) was brought up in the Golden Wonton Chinese Restaurant and Orphanage in Boiling Springs, Tennessee after being abandoned as a baby. Mr. Wong (Murphy), a Chinese man, owns the restaurant and orphanage. As a child, Norbit meets Kate Thomas (Thandie Newton), another orphan, and they became best of friends (they "got married" under the oak tree in the orphanage's back yard) and were always together until Kate was adopted two weeks later.

Norbit is slightly older when he meets Rasputia Latimore (Murphy), a morbidly obese, overbearing, vain bully of a girl who makes Norbit her boyfriend. As they both grow up, they become closer and eventually get married. Rasputia mistreats Norbit, insulting and dominating him, and making sure she keeps him all to herself. Rasputia fancies herself as a sexy stripper-type, and repeatedly launches herself onto Norbit while "in the mood", often injuring her husband in the process. Norbit works for Rasputia's three brothers: Big Black Jack (Terry Crews), Blue (Lester "Rasta" Speight) and Earl (Clifton Powell), at the Latimore Construction Company. Although the brothers run a legitimate business, they also, unbeknownst to Norbit, run the local extortions racket, and have spent years "shaking down" Norbit's friends and neighbors.

Norbit is performing a puppet show for the children at the orphange when he sees Kate. She tells him of her plans to buy the orphanage from Mr. Wong. Kate and Norbit agree to meet up and catch up with each other on Tuesday. However, when Norbit meets Kate, he finds out she is engaged to Deion Hughes (Cuba Gooding, Jr.).

At a carnival, the Latimores find out that Kate is buying Wong's orphanage. This surprises them, as when they attempted to buy the place, Wong (the only one in the town not afraid of the Laitmores) sternly refused. They later confront Deion, who is mysteriously on the verge of leaving town. He tells them that he has his own "problems" to deal with. They tell him that if he married Kate, the orphanage would be as much his as it would be hers, and that they plan on turning it into a strip-club. Deion agrees to marry Kate so he can have a share in the club.

The Latimores need Kate to sign papers to have the liquor license in the restaurant transferred over when she buys it. To do this, they intimidate Norbit into giving Kate the papers to sign. Later, Kate invites Norbit to help her pick food for the wedding, however according to two ex-pimps: Pope Sweet Jesus (Eddie Griffin) and Lord Have Mercy (Katt Williams), the event is a date.

Rasputia finds out about Norbit and Kate's date and she drives around town to find them. Norbit and Kate then have a wedding rehearsal, where they end up kissing. Rasputia witnesses this and faints, crashing her car. Kate runs sobbing and Norbit goes after her, catching her at her doorstep. Norbit apologizes for kissing her, but she tells him that she wanted him to kiss her. When he gets back, he hands the Latimores the transfer papers, which he got Kate to sign during the date. Rasputia threatens to pour hydrochloric acid on Kate if Norbit should associate with her again.

Next day, Friday, Kate questions Norbit about the papers she signed the night before, after Deion tells her about the unknown clause. Remembering Rasputia's threat, Norbit claims that he doesn't care about the orphanage, that he was happier with Rasputia and that he was merely trying to "score" with Kate last night. She runs away upset. That night, Norbit prepares to leave town for good, and has a talk with Mr. Wong, who tells him not to run from his own problems. He checks his letterbox, and finds the results of a background check for Deion he had sent a few days earlier.

Upon returning home, Norbit tries to call Kate, but she doesn't want to talk to him. To make things worse, the Latimores and Rasputia lock Norbit in the cellar to stop him interfering with the wedding and their inevitable, evil plan, but not before making a few calls on the phone. On the day of the wedding, all but one of the Latimores (Blue stays behind to keep an eye on Norbit) heads to the church. He manages to escape and rides his bicycle to the wedding. On the way, Norbit is being chased by Big Jack, Earl and Rasputia. Pope Sweet Jesus and Lord Have Mercy managed to stall the wedding for as long as possible by preaching about love and condoms to the congregation and even having the choir performing a gospel song. Deion, impatiently, stops the ruckus, quiets the congregation down, and orders Pope and Lord to shut their mouths so that the wedding can commence. Norbit finally bursts in and reveals the background check on Deion: he had cheated his three ex-wives out of $300,000 in divorce settlements. He also reveals the Latimores' plot to take over the orphanage. Kate doesn't believe him at first, as the papers were ruined when Norbit fell into a pond during his escape and the chase. But when Norbit reveals he called each of Deion's ex-wives and told them to come to the wedding, Deion does a runner and the Latimores, enraged that their plans for a strip club have now been permanently ruined, advance on Norbit.

Outside the church the townspeople take up arms against the Latimores in defense of Norbit, who attempts to run away but is tackled by Blue. Rasputia grabs a spade and fights her way through the crowd towards him. Before she can finish him off however, from the church steps Mr. Wong throws a curtain rod as a harpoon at her. The tip of it enters her body through her anus. This causes her to run away from the crowd screaming in pain. She is followed out of town by her brothers, who are being chased by the mob of townspeople, never to be seen or heard from again. Later, Kate and Norbit buy the orphanage and get married, while the Latimores set up "El Nipplopolis" in Mexico, with Rasputia who has become their most popular and lucrative strippers.

Reception and controversy

Negative Reaction

Reviews for the movie were overwhelmingly negative. A National Public Radio (NPR) film critic denigrated the film as "crass" and that it stereotypes black overweight women. Some see the Murphy character as being close to the mammy stereotype that once prevailed in American popular culture in the early decades of the twentieth century.² Also, Murphy's portrayal of an overweight, bossy, mean black woman has enraged many African-American women.³

Robert Entman, author of "The Black Image In The White Mind: Media And Race In America,"⁴ slams Murphy for letting the black community down. He says, "There is no excuse for him to lend his prestige to something like this. African American stars have to take some responsibility for their actions."⁵ Peter Travers of Rolling Stone declared the film the year's Worst Comedy on his list of the Worst Movies of 2007.⁶ The film received eight Razzie nominations, with most of the nominations directed at Murphy himself. His five nominations are a new single-year Razzie record.⁷ The film would end up receiving three of the awards; Worst Actor for Eddie Murphy as Norbit, Worst Supporting Actress for Eddie Murphy as Rasputia and Worst Supporting Actor for Eddie Murphy as Mr. Wong.

In the UK, film critic Mark Kermode said : "If you paid to see Norbit, look deep inside yourself. Look deep inside yourself and take the same amount of money you paid to see that movie and give it to a good cause because believe me, you're karmically unbalanced if you paid to see that film."

In a later interview, Thandie Newton said "The first draft, written by Eddie and his brother [Charles], was so out-there offensive it became satire. But I think it was mainstreamed so much it became hateful rather than satirical."⁹

Positive Reaction

The film also received an Academy Award nomination for Best Makeup.¹⁰ However, Oscar host Jon Stewart tempered this by saying, "Far too often, the Academy ignores movies that aren't good."

Box office results

The movie opened to $34.2 million in the United States and was Murphy's 14th #1 box office opener.¹¹ Norbit has grossed $95.7 million in North America and $63.6 million overseas for a total of $159.3 million worldwide, in comparison to its $65 million production cost.

Cast

Soundtrack

References

^ Academy Award Nominations
^ Neary, Lynn (2007-02-26). "Rasputia: A Comic Type, or a Racial Stereotype?" (Audio). All Things Considered. NPR. Retrieved on 2007-10-10. "Too Much? Tyler Perry and Eddie Murphy in their costumes."
^ Zook, Kristal (2007-02-16). "most Women Are Laughing at 'Norbit'" (Audio). All Things Considered. NPR. Retrieved on 2007-10-10.
^ Entman, Robert (December 2001). The Black Image in the White Mind: Media and Race in America, Lecture notes in mathematics 1358. University of Chicago Press, 340. ISBN ISBN 978-0226210766.
^ "Black Activist Slams Eddie Murphy's Role in 'Norbit'". Starpulse.com (2007-02-14). Retrieved on 2007-10-10.
^ Travers, Peter, (December 19, 2007) "Peter Travers' Best and Worst Movies of 2007" Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2007-12-20
^ [1] 2007 Razzie Nominations Retrieved 2008-01-21
^ angry asian man
^ Lesley O'Toole (2008-11-01). "Thandie Newton: The First Lady". The Guardian. Retrieved on 2008-11-02.
^ Academy Award Nominations
^ The Hollywood Reporter Nicole Sperling, February 12, 2007

Contents

Plot