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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 Thandiwe Newton, Terry Crews, Cuba Gooding Jr., Eddie Griffin, Katt Williams, Marlon Wayans, and Charlie Murphy.
Eddie Murphy portrays multiple roles including the eponymous Norbit and his abusive, obese wife Rasputia. Norbit, unhappily married, is reunited with his childhood sweetheart Kate, but must contend with Rasputia and her brothers and foil a sabotage plan constructed by Rasputia.
It was released by DreamWorks and Paramount Pictures on February 9, 2007. The film was a box office success, grossing $159 million worldwide against a production budget of $60 million. It was panned by critics and was nominated for eight Golden Raspberry Awards, and also received a nomination for the 2008 Academy Award for Best Makeup. The film has since developed a cult following over the years since its’ release.
Five years later, a tough, overweight girl named Rasputia Latimore saves Norbit from bullies, and becomes his girlfriend, and then wife. Norbit is intimidated by Rasputia's three, muscular brothers Big Black Jack, Blue, and Earl, working as a Bookkeeping at their construction company. The Latimore brothers also run an extortion "Extortion", instilling fear in most of the community, aside from Mr. Wong, who refuses to sell his business and often confronts them with weaponry.
After catching Rasputia Adultery on him with her "power tap" dance instructor (Wayans), Norbit insults her by calling her "The Queen of Whores" and is chased through the neighborhood. Heartbroken over the betrayal, Norbit discards his wedding ring and vents his anger at a puppet show for the orphans. Much to his surprise, Kate is in attendance. His affection reignites. She intends to purchase Mr. Wong's orphanage, and is engaged to a man named Deion Hughes (Gooding).
Aided by his friends and the townspeople, Norbit meets Kate without Rasputia's knowledge. They slowly reconnect and Kate teaches Norbit to ride a bike. Deion plans to leave town, having no interest in the orphanage, but the Latimore brothers persuade him to turn it into a strip club. They dupe Norbit and Kate into renewing the restaurant's liquor license in (the Latimores') name. Norbit helps Kate rehearse her wedding; a kiss between them makes her reconsider marrying Deion. Rasputia confronts Norbit, having witnessed their kiss, and threatens Kate with acid.
When Kate learns about Deion's plans, she confronts Norbit, who is being imprisoned in his basement by Rasputia, the mastermind of the duplicitous strip club plan. Norbit reluctantly insults Kate to protect her from Rasputia. Heartbroken, Kate leaves and a guilt-ridden Norbit decides to permanently leave town. However, he finds a letter from the private investigator he hired, and discovers Deion has gained $300,000 in divorce settlements from four marriages in the last six years.
The Latimores reveal their plan to Norbit and lock him in the basement again. Norbit escapes by bike, crashes the wedding, officially denounces Rasputia, and informs Kate of Deion's schemes and his own weak-willed treachery. However, Norbit's evidence is ruined when he falls into a pond, making Rasputia gloat. Fortunately, Norbit had contacted three of Deion's ex-wives and their children, all of whom appear, foiling the Latimores’ plan and exposing Deion, who now flees.
Angered, the Latimore brothers attack Norbit, but the townspeople protect him, having been inspired by his bravery. Rasputia fights her way through the crowd and prepares to kill Norbit, but Mr. Wong harpoons her in the rear, making her flee out of town, followed by her brothers. Norbit and Kate reconcile, purchase the orphanage, and marry under the same tree where they played as children years ago.
Rasputia and the Latimores are never seen or heard from again. They are rumored to have opened their strip club "El Nipplopolis" in Mexico, where Rasputia becomes their most popular stripper.
The various prosthetic makeups, bodysuits, and wigs were created by Rick Baker and his company Cinovation. Baker praised Murphy saying "He really makes the stuff come to life, and he never complains. When we did 'The Nutty Professor' ..., he spent 80-odd days in the makeup chair. As much as I love makeup, even I would have been complaining by the end, but Eddie didn't."
Rick Baker wanted to work from a real life model and auditioned over a hundred extra large ladies, all with the necessary proportions. The model also needed to be able to dance. After several rounds of auditions, one lady was chosen as the life model for Rasputia and a foam latex suit was created based on her measurements. The suit's surface was painted with silicone to make it look like skin. Silicone was also used to make matching gloves. The shape of Murphy's face was changed using foam latex and pieces of silicone, which were then painted over in various tones of red, brown and yellow to create realistic looking skin tone. A body double was used for some scenes, particularly the water park. Murphy with his face in makeup as Rasputia performed against green screen and his head was digitally composited onto the body double.
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.
Luke Sader of The Hollywood Reporter called it "Racially insensitive, politically incorrect and beyond crude." Scott Tobias of The A.V. Club gave the film a grade of "F" and wrote: "It probably isn't possible for a single movie to reverse all social progress made since the civil-rights era, but Norbit, the latest broadside from Eddie Murphy, does its best to turn back the clock" and "hideously offensive black stereotypes are merely the tip of the iceberg." Josh Tyler of CinemaBlend 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 film around a black man dressing up as an unsophisticated, overweight black woman." Film critic MaryAnn Johanson said it was a minstrel show and called it a "hideous stew of bigoted 'humor'".
The New Yorker film critic Richard Brody praised Murphy's performances saying "playing multiple roles, Murphy unleashes, with a sense of painful revelation, a tangle of rage, cringing fear, furious power, and a sense of perpetual and unresolved outsiderness." He rated it 17th of 30 top acting performances of the 21st century.
Musician Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys called Norbit his favorite movie in a 2007 interview with the Asbury Park Press.
Director Brian Robbins reacted to the negative reviews claiming that "The only films that get good reviews are the ones that nobody sees. I just don't think you can make movies for critics". He also defended his star-driven, high-concept movies’ approach to filmmaking, and praised Murphy's performance, saying that "Eddie Murphy plays three amazingly different characters brilliantly. How could you not praise that? No offense to Alan Arkin, but he couldn't do what Eddie did in 'Norbit.'"
Jim Emerson of RogerEbert.com agreed that filmmakers like Robbins should ignore critics, and made note of the “ancient analogy about McDonald's and food critics”. He suggested that Robbins' films "were neither designed for, nor marketed to, people who pay all that much attention to movie critics". Nonetheless, Emerson pointed out several of the top grossing films of 2006 got both good reviews from critics and gained wide audiences.
In an interview with Complex’s 360 with Speedy, Eddie Murphy expressed his affection for Norbit, saying simply, “I love Norbit.” Despite the film’s heavy criticism—including Razzies for Worst Actor, Worst Actress, and even Worst Actor of the Decade—Murphy stood by the movie and dismissed the negative backlash. “Come on, that stuff isn’t that bad,” he remarked. Reflecting on the film’s lasting impact, he added, “To this day, I like it. Stuff in Norbit
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| Academy Awards | Best Makeup | Rick Baker and Kazuhiro Tsuji | |
| Alliance of Women Film Journalists | Hall of Shame | ||
| BET Awards | Best Actor | Eddie Murphy (also for Dreamgirls) | |
| Golden Raspberry Awards (2007) | Worst Picture | John Davis, Michael Tollin and Eddie Murphy | |
| Worst Director | Brian Robbins | ||
| Worst Actor | Cuba Gooding Jr. (also for Daddy Day Camp) | ||
| Eddie Murphy (as Norbit) | |||
| Worst Supporting Actor | Eddie Murphy (as Mr. Wong) | ||
| Worst Supporting Actress | Eddie Murphy (as Rasputia) | ||
| Worst Screenplay | Jay Scherick, David Ronn, Charlie Murphy and Eddie Murphy | ||
| Worst Screen Couple | Eddie Murphy (and either Eddie Murphy or Eddie Murphy) | ||
| Golden Raspberry Awards (2009) | Worst Actor of the Decade | Eddie Murphy (also for The Adventures of Pluto Nash, I Spy, Imagine That, Meet Dave, and Showtime) | |
| Golden Schmoes Awards | Worst Movie of the Year | ||
| Kids' Choice Awards | Favorite Male Movie Star | Eddie Murphy | |
| Women Film Critics Circle Awards | Most Offensive Male Character | Eddie Murphy (as Rasputia) | |
| Hall of Shame | |||
Several songs were used in the film which do not appear on the soundtrack album, in order of appearance:
The song "Tonight, I Celebrate My Love" is sung at Norbit and Rasputia's wedding party, but likewise does not appear on the soundtrack album.
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