Eddie Murphy really enjoys playing fat women, or it is the only way he can now get work. There can simply be no other reason for the existence of "Norbit."
"Norbit" follows the adventures of the titular main character, as he progresses through a series of increasingly absurd and decreasingly funny adventures in an effort to escape his hefty ball and chain and find his true love.
Following in the grand tradition of "The Nutty Professor" and "Nutty Professor II: The Klumps," Murphy plays the emasculated main character, as well as his obese wife Rasputia and his father figure Mr. Wong.
While it was novel to see Eddie Murphy playing several characters at once more than a decade ago, now it seems possible that he just couldn't find anyone else to play the parts.
Surprisingly, Murphy doesn't play all the roles in the film. Thandie Newton ("The Pursuit of Happyness", "Crash") plays Norbit's love interest Kate, and Cuba Gooding Jr. ("End Game", "Radio") plays Dion, Kate's fiancé.
The attempts at humor in the film can be broken down into three parts: situational jokes about how Murphy is a fat woman, physical comedy where Murphy is injured, and jokes about race - they all repeatedly fall flat.
The fat jokes are mostly sight gags. So, as "Norbit" progresses, the fat female Murphy - trite to begin with - becomes even more mundane, essentially destroying whatever scrap of humor the gags had left.
Aside from the ever-popular fat joke, "Norbit" relies heavily on physical comedy.
Rasputia is a violent woman, and she is constantly abusing Norbit with various everyday objects or squishing him. The key to good slapstick is timing, and there is simply too much of it to be a good thing.
Once upon a time, Eddie Murphy used racism humorously to show people how ridiculous it really is. Now, however, jokes about race figure heavily into the script and Murphy plays Mr. Wong - a character as stereotyped as Mr. Yunioshi from "Breakfast at Tiffany's," making it hard to tell whether he's simply joking about the racism or playing into it.
"Norbit" isn't completely devoid of laughs, though. The nameless town where the story takes places offers up some genuinely funny characters, including Richard Gant as the Preacher and Floyd the (sometimes talking) dog.
A few of the other jokes even occasionally hit the mark. But overall, "Norbit" only offers laughs to those who are really amused by fat jokes.
It seems that Eddie Murphy is the latest in a long line of "Saturday Night Live" stars who refuse to admit they are no longer as funny as they used to be. I, for one, hope he follows Chevy Chase's example and takes his place in the comedy history books instead of lingering on like Steve Martin. Hopefully, he'll at least hang up his fat suit.
Reach the reporter at: zachary.richter@asu.edu.
