Richard Crouse

This is the movie that probably cost Eddie Murphy his Oscar. He was nominated for his tour de force performance in Dreamgirls but had the misfortune to have Norbit open in theatres the week the Academy voters were casting their ballots. All the goodwill Murphy accumulated with Dreamgirls evaporated into the ether as soon as the Oscar taste-makers got a load of him dressed as an aggressive 300 woman and the award went elsewhere.

Apart from the first ten minutes or so Norbit is a laugh free zone; a movie that mistakes prosthetics for humor. Murphy mines whatever comedy is buried under all the make-up he wears as he plays three different characters—the nerdy Norbit, his obese wife and an old Chinese restaurant owner—but the jokes are few and far between.

Norbit gives the word “lowbrow” new meaning.