Murphy’s magnificent, comedy’s conventional

Published 9:00 pm Thursday, February 8, 2007

Eddie Murphy’s gift for inhabiting characters (and fondness for make-up) gets a plus-sized workout in “Norbit,” a rude new vehicle. This is a screwball comedy in which he plays a husband and wife.

That’s right: Murphy plays mild-mannered Norbit, a henpecked husband, and Rasputia, Norbit’s obese, dominating wife. As Norbit, he wears ’70s glasses and a goofy, chin-first expression – sort of a cousin to his geek role in “Bowfinger,” and a descendant of Jerry Lewis.

As Rasputia, Murphy is literally unrecognizable, except for the screeching voice. He’s covered in pounds of foam and attitude, and he sashays his considerable hips with the expertise of a full-time drag act.

The film gets off to a roaring start, as Norbit narrates his unhappy childhood. It seems he was raised by a Mr. Wong, who runs an orphanage in the storybook Tennessee town of Boiling Springs. (Mr. Wong, an elderly Chinese gentleman, is played by Eddie Murphy.)

It seems the gigantic Rasputia is a childhood protector of Norbit, so their marriage is pre-ordained. The movie cruises along with predictable fat jokes until another childhood friend returns to town, Norbit’s sweetheart Kate (Thandie Newton). Norbit must then find a way to get out of his marriage, but Rasputia (who, as her name implies, is not easily defeated) and her hulking brothers have other ideas.

Perhaps the most disappointing thing about “Norbit” is the way it becomes a conventional, broad comedy after its promising opening reel. At first you think you’re watching the first Eddie Murphy movie to be scripted by the Coen brothers; but eventually the film turns into a speculation on what would happen if a 350-pound person went on a water slide.

Newton doesn’t register much opposite Murphy’s elaborate performances. There are supporting comedy roles for Marlon Wayans, as Rasputia’s alarmingly dentured aerobics instructor, Cuba Gooding Jr., as Kate’s slippery fiance, and Eddie Griffin and Katt Williams, as two reformed pimps.

Murphy’s genius for mimicry has electrified otherwise bad movies (most notably, the “Nutty Professor” films, in which his portrayal of the members of a black family are nothing short of astonishing), and he never falters here. The seamlessness of Rick Baker’s make-up gives Murphy free range of expression. Even when the script – partly written by Murphy – goes flat, the actor is firing away.

Murphy is currently up for a supporting actor Oscar for “Dreamgirls,” and supposedly there’s buzz now that the lowbrow nature of “Norbit” will hurt his chances. Only if the Oscar voters are stupid. (Which they often are.) But comedy is hard, and it’s well past the time when the Academy Awards figured that out.

Norbit (Eddie Murphy) finds himself up a tree with Rasputia (also Eddie Murphy) in “Norbit.”