The Study of Racialism

February 9, 2007
NY Times
MOVIE REVIEW | 'NORBIT'


That Was No Elephant, That Was My Wife

By A. O. SCOTT

“Norbit,” a raucous, sloppy comedy directed by Brian Robbins, is primarily a showcase for the talents of its star, Eddie Murphy (also credited as a producer and a screenwriter), and Rick Baker, who was in charge of “special makeup effects.” Mr. Murphy’s polymorphous sketch-comedy chops have previously been enhanced by Mr. Baker’s mastery of fat-suit and latex-mask techniques in the two “Nutty Professor” movies. In this film the makeup, along with editing tricks and visual effects, allow Mr. Murphy to play three different characters.

Each is a bit of a stereotype. Norbit Rice, a role for which Mr. Murphy puts on thick glasses and affects a voice that sounds like a variation on the Bill Cosby impression he used to do, is a henpecked nebbish. His wife, Rasputia ­ the best movie-character name since Bezu Fache, the French detective in “The Da Vinci Code,” by the way ­ is an ill-tempered giantess, a monstrous variation on Madea, the plus-size matriarch incarnated by Tyler Perry in “Diary of a Mad Black Woman” and its sequel.

To play Rasputia, Mr. Murphy appears to have been encased in foam rubber and dressed in Dolce & Gabbana for Elephants. It is when Rasputia goes out in a bikini (and, later, for a bikini wax) that the full extent of Mr. Baker’s virtuosity becomes evident.

There were some big-boned people in the audience at the screening I attended, and also some nerds with glasses (one, anyway), and none of them seemed too offended by Rasputia or her husband. Mr. Wong (also Mr. Murphy), the Chinese man whose restaurant doubles as an orphanage, may not go over so well, though there is some evidence to suggest that ethnic dialect humor is creeping back into respectability under the sign of “irony.” “You ugry brack baby!” Mr. Wong exclaims when he finds the infant Norbit in his driveway.

Not exactly uproarious. But Mr. Murphy, going back at least to his Gumby and Buckwheat days on “Saturday Night Live,” has always had the ability to turn broad caricature into something stranger and more inventive. He is less like his fellow “SNL”-cast-members-turned-movie-stars, who mostly sustain a consistent persona underneath whatever costume they are wearing, than like Peter Sellers, who could burrow alarmingly deep even when playing broad, easy roles. And so Mr. Murphy takes Mr. Wong a few steps beyond simple mockery.

He also endows Rasputia, in spite of her habit of throwing Norbit through walls, her flatulence and her handy, tiresome catchphrase (“How you doin’?”), with an odd kind of delicacy. Her violent meanness is compounded by vanity, an unshakable sense of her own divine femininity that shows itself in the way she rolls her eyes, tilts her head and flutters her enormous, exquisitely manicured hands. Rasputia is certainly hateful, but some of her self-love manages to rub off on the audience.

That she is impervious to humiliation makes the humor in “Norbit” less cruel than it might have been. The script, which Mr. Murphy wrote with his brother Charles and the team of Jay Scherick and David Ronn, cobbles together a ramshackle plot that leaves room for other comic actors to indulge in some low-fat shtick. Marlon Wayans is an ambitious aerobic dance instructor who cuckolds Norbit, while Eddie Griffin and Katt Williams are a pair of good-natured, semi-retired pimps. Hollywood sure does love pimps, by the way. Why is that, I wonder.

But pimps, funny-talking Asians and fat ladies crashing through walls do not a movie make. Or maybe they do, especially if you throw in a talking dog, which this movie does. In any case, tradition dictates that there must also be a pretty, skinny woman (Thandie Newton) and, um, another guy (Cuba Gooding Jr.). Ms. Newton is Kate, Norbit’s childhood sweetheart, and Mr. Gooding is her fiancé, Deion, a smooth-talking charmer quickly revealed to be a heartless phony.

Norbit himself is sweet, odd and beleaguered, and one of the movie’s most ingenious touches is the discrepancy between his sunny, forgiving view of the world (conveyed in voice-over narration) and the horrific reality of his married life. Not only must he endure Rasputia’s domestic tyranny; he also works for her three nasty brothers, who dominate the town through their construction and extortion business.

Mr. Robbins’s direction is adequate. He doesn’t mess up the story ­ it was a mess to begin with ­ but too many of the gags are lumbering and graceless, more fun to anticipate than to witness. What will happen when Rasputia goes down an amusement park water slide? She’ll crash through a wall. What will she do when she’s mad at Norbit? Throw him through a window.

“Norbit” is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned). It has some sexual humor and naughty language.

Or more likely, she is considered woman attractive in ALL populations so she was a better choice for marketing. Plus he is ridiculing Fat women, not all Black women.
Other lead females with Eddie Murphie:
Marsha Thomason Mixed
Regina King African American
Kristen Wilson African American
Janet Jackson African American
Jada Pinkett African American
Angela Bassett African American
Sheryl Lee Ralph Jamaican
Robin Givens African American
Halle Berry Mixed
Jasmine Guy African American

A compendium of mixed, light skinned and brown skinned Afrodescent women

Sal,

Many of the women you listed are obviously mixed, like Regina King and Jada Smith. Jasmine Guy's mother is white and father is mixed-African American.

There's a long history of black males in entertainment ridiculing black females and holding up the mulatta as the feminine ideal.

Thandie Newton is the daughter of a white father.

Well, this is true enough, but probably less so today. It is unacceptable to go on about 'light skinned cuties" in polite and/or politically conscious company today.

Is it just me or does it seem that black female/white male interracial couples in film and television usually involve a mulatta-looking female?

Well, this is true enough, but probably less so today. It is unacceptable to go on about 'light skinned cuties" in polite and/or politically conscious company today.

Is it just me or does it seem that black female/white male interracial couples in film and television usually involve a mulatta-looking female?

There's a long history of black males in entertainment ridiculing black females and holding up the mulatta as the feminine ideal.

Sometimes but I think Sanaa Latham who starred in "Something New" has more African features.

And there's a long history of white men ridiculing their women for entertainment. Eddie Murphy dresses as a woman. So, did Dustin Hoffman, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Tony Curtis, Jack Lemon, and Milton Berle.

Moreover, white women have been forced to live up to an impossible standard of beauty by their them that forces some to have plastic surgery, breast implants, and other dysfunctional behavior.

This is obvious enough when one peruses the pages of Jet magazine or Ebony, especially back issues from the early days of those magazines.

....are black men the ones who are choosing the women to feature in these magazines, or casting these movies, and tv shows, that are alledged to hold bias toward "light" women?? I think you'll find that most of the time, they are not.

Is Phil345 seriously claiming that "most" members of management (editorial board, directors, department supervisors) of Johnson Publishing are not Black? That would be utterly incredible!

I made a statment about movies, television,magazines, and black men in specific.

I have doubts that its mostly black men who are picking out lightskinned women to feature in media.

No. That is untrue. You did not. You specifically quoted and answered Gordon's statement, "This is obvious enough when one peruses the pages of Jet magazine or Ebony, especially back issues from the early days of those magazines." Jet and Ebony are both Johnson publications.

You now have 24 hours to come up with a source that the most of the staffers of Jet and Ebony (which is what you were answering to) who choose the feature models are not Black men.

His statment that "This is obvious...", with "this" referring to the bias in entertainment (in general) towards lightskinned women which is allegedly controlled black men who are out to degrade their own women. He used Jet and Ebony Magazine as an example, but it was a broader point that he was making.

I responded, with a rhetorical question, expressing my belief that most of the people making these decisions about the women (models, ect..) to feature in media (magazines, movies, and television) are not black men.

I'll definately get back to you on this....it might not be in 24 hours though.