Favorite Ed Norton Role...

[PeruvianSkies]

I've always been a huge fan of Edward Norton, who has been constantly evolving as an actor...so which role did you enjoy his performance in the most???

PRIMAL FEAR is certainly a movie that relies heavily on Norton's ability to portray a dual personality, and FIGHT CLUB is awesome with his voice-over moments, AMERICAN HISTORY X was incredible because he managed to pull off the tougher guy type of role, but I have to say that THE ILLUSIONIST is slowly creaping into my new favorites as his portrayal is low-key, effective, and awesome.

[RoyY51]

My vote for his best role goes to his work on "The Honeymooners" His comedic interplay with Ralph Kramden was truly inspired!

[Smokey]

Haven’t seen too many of his movies, but I thought he did a good job in the Score with Deniro and Brando.

[Dusty Chalk]

Why'd you put The Italian Job in there? He had such a small role, it will never be anyone's favourite.

Even though it's not my favourite movie, I really liked his playing of the character in Fight Club. It was a very difficult role, to not one-up Brad Pitt, and yet still maintain a non-secondary role in the movie. They really were co-stars in that film.

[PeruvianSkies]

The Italian Job made the list simply on the fact that Norton has not been in a huge amount of films, the only ones I really left out was his minor role in Frida, Kingdom of Heaven, and a film that I truly despised Keeping the Faith. Also, while his role was minimal in The Italian Job, it was still well done!

[Troy]

I choose "Fight Club", one of my favorite movies, period.

Though I think "The People Vs. Larry Flint" really HAS TO be on an Ed Norton list before terrible movies like "Death to Smoochy" and "Italian Job" are.

[Groundbeef]

I choose "Fight Club", one of my favorite movies, period.

Though I think "The People Vs. Larry Flint" really HAS TO be on an Ed Norton list before terrible movies like "Death to Smoochy" and "Italian Job" are.

I'm sorry, but Death to Smoochy was FUNNY. Very dry, and yet slapstickish at the same time. I about wet my pants when the "Save the Rhino" guy got blindsided.

I vote for American History X. Awesome film. I didn't really enjoy fight club as much as the buildup. It was a good movie, but I personally didn't enjoy as much as others.

[PeruvianSkies]

I too enjoyed DEATH TO SMOOCHY. You have to love dark comedies to really apprecite just how over the top the film is.

[topspeed]

It was a toss-up between Primal Fear and American History X, ultimately with AHX winning the day. That was just such a powerful movie and he literally carried the film by himself. I actually didn't care for The Illusionist, but I did think Death to Smoochy was hilarious (as dark comedies go).

Norton is, IMO, one of the top three actors of his generation.

[PeruvianSkies]

who are the other two top actors of his generation in your opinion?

[Gerald Cooperberg]

You know, I've always thought that Ed Norton was a fine actor, but looking over this list, there's not a lot on there that does much for me. Out of the ones I've seen, American History X comes the closest to using his talents in the service of a compelling film, but I feel that it goes just a little off the rails near the end...

It seems like 2006 was a good year for him-- besides The Illusionist, which you mention, he also starred in Down In the Valley and the W. Somerset Maugham adaptation The Painted Veil, all of which are high on my to-see list (especially the latter). I wonder if any other actor had a similar string of leading roles in the past year...?

-Coop

[noddin0ff]

Norton, Depp...#3?

[Gerald Cooperberg]

I rented Down in the Valley over the weekend and it turned out to be a very pleasant surprise. The initial set-up and tone reminded me a lot of another movie from this year, The King, although the two films go very different places by the end. Norton's performance sets them apart as well-- where Gael García Bernal's seduction of Pell James in The King felt queasily inevitable, the relationship between Norton and Evan Rachel Wood finds a more delicate note-- one that almost lures the viewer into believing in the innocence of their romance in spite of themselves (for a time, at least). Norton is eerily convincing in projecting what feels not so much like duplicity as honest contradiction. I'd be remiss if I didn't also mention the striking direction, which captures a look and feel that seem just as out-of-time as Norton's anachronistic cowboy. Skimming a few reviews after I watched it, it seems as if the most frequent comparisons are to such '70s films as Two Lane Blacktop and Badlands, which I'd say is just about right. It's kept from being one of my favorites of the year by a last half-hour that in my opinion stretches the limits of believability and loses that captivating duality of the earlier parts of the film, but definitely worth a viewing.

-Coop

[Gerald Cooperberg]

I managed to catch up with both The Illusionist and The Painted Veil over the last week, so I might as well post my reactions to those as well...

I didn't really care for The Illusionist at all... conventional wisdom seemed to hold that The Prestige was the superior of the two competing "magician" flicks, and since I didn't care for that picture much upon its release, the contrarian in me really wanted to like The Illusionist, but it just wasn't there. The performers acquit themselves fairly well all around (even, or maybe especially, Jessica Biel, who turned in a fine performance-- miles ahead of Scarlett Johanssen, at least, who seems to have forgotten how to act since Lost In Translation), but they are forced to labor under ridiculous accents*. Norton isn't even really given much to do besides casting alternately baleful and knowing glances. The script, though, is just dead in the water. The clichés abound, from an over-explanatory flashback sequence that eats up most of the first half-hour (!) to the obligatory twist that recontextualizes earlier events (since it is a movie about magic tricks, natch). To be sure, the film is exceptionally lensed and includes some eye-popping visuals, such as the shot of Paul Giamatti striding down a corridor framed with antlers, for one, and a disappearing tree (I think I saw it reappear in The Lake House). But every moment of delight is leavened by several that are cringe-inducing, Giamatti's overwrought Palmienteri-in-Usual-Suspects impression at the end of the film chief among them.

I enjoyed The Painted Veil a great deal more, but it was still missing something. It's a stunner, visually, one that I really recommend seeing on the big screen... I didn't like the script changes, though, having read the novel. The film really makes both of the main characters (especially Norton) more sympathetic and the second half adds some plot points that serve only to turn it into a run-of-the-mill picture about noble white westerners rescuing an exotic populace. The real pleasure that I got out of watching it was in the acting. Both of the leads are great and the color around the edges is uniformly stellar, including Toby Jones, Liev Schrieber (pitch-perfect as the philandering "other man"), Diana Rigg (as a nun!), and Anthony Wong Chau-Sang (who I got a kick out of recognizing from Infernal Affairs).

After having seen all three of his films from 2006, I'd have to say that I vastly preferred his work in Down In the Valley, unencumbered by mannered vocal inflection or the necessity to play the earnest hero.

-Coop

*Tangent: why on earth were the accents employed in The Illusionist necessary? This has been a recent pet peeve of mine... like many other films, a British accent is used as lazy shorthand for "foreign" (or at least "European"), despite the fact that the film is set in Vienna-- but the majority of the leads are American actors (Norton, Biel, Giamatti)! Couldn't they have just acted in regular voice? Would this have been any less "authentic"? Did this bother anyone else?

[Dusty Chalk]

Tangent: why on earth were the accents employed in The Illusionist necessary? This has been a recent pet peeve of mine... like many other films, a British accent is used as lazy shorthand for "foreign" (or at least "European"), despite the fact that the film is set in Vienna-- but the majority of the leads are American actors (Norton, Biel, Giamatti)! Couldn't they have just acted in regular voice? Would this have been any less "authentic"? Did this bother anyone else?

I completely agree: just drop the fake accents or get it right -- they're more distracting than anything else. I think the problem was that Norton got his right, but the others barely tried -- either get everyone on the same page, or make sure no-one does it.

That said, I haven't heard any real Viennese people speaking, to hear what authenticity sounds like. But there was definitely something incongruous going on...

[Groundbeef]

I completely agree: just drop the fake accents or get it right -- they're more distracting than anything else. I think the problem was that Norton got his right, but the others barely tried -- either get everyone on the same page, or make sure no-one does it.

That said, I haven't heard any real Viennese people speaking, to hear what authenticity sounds like. But there was definitely something incongruous going on...

I think the worst example of fake accents lately has to be in the train wreck of a movie "Troy". I didn't realize that it was actually the Irish who controlled most of Italy during the Roman Empire.

[Gerald Cooperberg]

This exact question was coincidentally addressed in this morning's AV Club, and some reasoned explanation was given:

http://www.avclub.com/content/node/58468

[Dusty Chalk]

I think the worst example of fake accents lately has to be in the train wreck of a movie "Troy". I didn't realize that it was actually the Irish who controlled most of Italy during the Roman Empire.

Yeah, that was pretty bad, but how about that Cold Mountain, huh?

[salad 419]

I bought The Illusionist this weekend because of this thread (since I didn't know it existed) and I like Edward Norton a bunch. I'm not a big fan of movies that aren't set in modern times and usuallly have a hard time getting into them. I thought the movie was pretty good, although way too predictable.

Fight Club is one of my favorite movies, but American History X is definately my favorite role.

[salad 419]

PS, and I'm glad that he finally didn't say "highly organized" in the Illusionist.........

I know you know what I'm talking about.