Edward Norton is hit and miss. That’s no more apparent than when he’s playing twin brothers, Bill and Brady Kincaid. Bill, a classic philosophy professor, is a miss. Brady, a pot-smoking redneck, is a hit in more than one sense.
Norton can’t play straight characters and seems much more at ease when breaking out of his skin. “Leaves of Grass,” directed by Tim Blake Nelson, has some absolutely hilarious scenes involving the shenanigans of Norton’s crazy Brady character.
Richard Dreyfuss shows up for a moment and adds to the hammy performances. It’s these that are the film’s triumph.
Tim Blake Nelson has been too obsessed with proving some ridiculous notions about God and life’s ultimate meaning. His ideological framing breaks every film he does, which is a shame when they have such humorous elements.
