When Kate (now a successful businesswoman) returns to town to save the local orphanage from being demolished by a shady developer (a plot point that feels secondary), Norbit is torn. He must find the courage to leave Rasputia, win back Kate, and save his home. The narrative is a paint-by-numbers romantic comedy, but the paint is made of crude latex and louder-than-life performances.
Here is the cast of characters Murphy plays:
The true spectacle of is watching Eddie Murphy perform a one-man variety show. At the height of his powers following Dreamgirls (for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor), Murphy chose to follow up his dramatic triumph with the lowest of low-brow comedies.
More significantly, Norbit became a shorthand for cinematic offensiveness. In the years since, as conversations around body shaming, racial representation, and gendered stereotypes have evolved, the film has aged like milk left on a radiator. It is frequently cited in think pieces about “the last truly un-PC comedy.” It marks the end of an era where a major studio would hand $60 million to a star to play multiple offensive stereotypes, all in the service of a flimsy romantic plot. Norbit -2007-
The humor of Norbit is the humor of a slapstick cartoon. People are hit with shovels, thrown through walls, and humiliated in elaborate set pieces. A running gag involves Rasputia’s brothers working as “pimps” in a failed waterbed store. There’s a scene where Norbit is forced to sing a love song to Rasputia in a crowded restaurant, only to be smashed in the face with a dessert tray.
The film follows the life of , a mild-mannered orphan who was raised in a combination Chinese restaurant and orphanage by the eccentric Mr. Wong. Norbit’s life takes a difficult turn when he is "rescued" on the playground by Rasputia Latimore , a massive, overbearing girl who eventually becomes his wife.
The film follows , a mild-mannered, timid orphan raised by the eccentric Mr. Wong in an orphanage that doubles as a Chinese restaurant. When Kate (now a successful businesswoman) returns to
Critics accused the film of blatant fatphobia. Rasputia is not just a villain; she is a visual grotesquerie. The film equates her size with greed, violence, gluttony, and uncontrolled lust. Every scene involving Rasputia features her breaking furniture, eating excessively, or crushing smaller characters. The message, many argued, was that fat women are inherently monstrous and undeserving of love.
The film’s best joke is its most self-aware: during the climactic wedding sequence, Rasputia tears through a fake wall like the Kool-Aid Man, screaming, “Oh yeah!” It’s absurd, stupid, and perfectly executed. But these moments are oases in a desert of mean-spiritedness. The romantic subplot with Thandie Newton’s Kate is the film’s weakest element—Newton, a genuinely elegant actress, looks lost, delivering lines like “I’ll always be your Boo-Boo Kitty” with a desperate professionalism. There is zero chemistry between her and Murphy’s Norbit, making the film’s emotional core feel like an obligation.
Directed by Brian Robbins (of Good Burger and Varsity Blues fame) and co-written by Murphy, Charlie Murphy, and Jay Scherick, is a wild, audacious, and often uncomfortable ride. But to dismiss it as merely "bad" is to ignore its bizarre genius. Let’s dive deep into the plot, the performances, the controversy, and the legacy of this unforgettable cinematic oddity. Here is the cast of characters Murphy plays:
Eddie Murphy, who wore a 70-pound fat suit for the role, defended the character as pure satire. "It’s a cartoon," he said in interviews. "Rasputia is no more a real person than Shrek." Thandie Newton, who played the slender, virtuous love interest, later expressed deep regret over the film, telling Vulture in 2018: "I was so disappointed in myself for doing that film. It was a huge error of judgment."
This is the last great gasp of Eddie Murphy’s “man of a thousand faces” era, a direct lineage from his Nutty Professor films. The technical achievement is undeniable. The problem is that he used his genius to create monsters, not characters. Where Sherman Klump in The Nutty Professor had pathos and a gentle soul, Rasputia has only volume and menace.