Norbit

Product Description

Norbit (Eddie Murphy) is a shy fellow raised by Mr Wong (Eddie Murphy again) in a combination orphanage Chinese restaurant in Boiling Springs Tennessee As a child Norbit comes to love Kate a fellow orphan but the soulmates are separated when Kate is adopted Enter Rasputia an aggressive plus-sized 10-year-old who protects him from bullies & demands his romantic loyalty much like her thuggish older brothers demand 'protection' money from all the merchants in Boiling Springs Rasputia & Norbit eventually marry--and the peevish adult Rasputia is played to great comic effect by Eddie Murphy in a fat suit Although Rasputia is controlling unfaithful hideous-looking & always madder than a hornet she & Norbit make a life together albeit one based on inertia fear & complacency The bubble bursts when the now-grown Kate (Thandie Newton) returns to Boiling Springs to buy Mr Wong's orphanage Norbit's love is rekindled & he must find a way to end his loveless marriage save Kate from marrying a crooked philanderer (Cuba Gooding Jr in a rare villainous turn) & prevent Rasputia's brothers from carrying through with a big con job that would destroy the orphanage & Kate's life Eddie Murphy not surprisingly carries the show with broad juvenile humour fat jokes & pratfalls & while he never aims very high he manages to inject some poignancy into Norbit's & Wong's characters even as he plays Rasputia strictly for laughs It's not Shakespeare--it's not even BIG MOMMA'S HOUSE--but the laughs are as big as Rasputia's muumuu