I get the sense Murphy doesn't mind much. Like Mel Gibson, Murphy has become a one-man brand, consistently making his own massively profitable pictures and showing little interest in kowtowing for the respect of Hollywood insiders or critics. In his rare public statements Murphy has admitted his appearance in Dreamgirls was a favor to the producers, and a glance at the projects he's got in development indicates we won't be seeing that kind of "serious" work from him again anytime soon.

So why is everybody in such a tizzy over Norbit? Written by Murphy and his brother Charles, it's an outlandish fable set in a fairy-tale suburb. The comic plays the milquetoast title role, as well as his own 500-pound wife Rasputia.

Norbit's childhood sweetheart (Thandie Newton) comes back into town, but little does she know that her fiance (Cuba Gooding Jr.) is hatching a scheme with Rasputia's no-good brothers to buy the local orphanage/Chinese restaurant owned by Mr. Wong (Murphy again) and replace it with a strip club called Nipplopilis.

Obviously this is an extremely foolish picture, proudly so. but there's a real manic energy to the performances, and I'm not ashamed to admit I laughed myself sick. Murphy once again astonishes with the attention to detail in his characterizations, even when buried under tons of Rick Baker's brilliant makeup. (Check out the daintiness with which Rasputia carries herself, as if she's somehow oblivious to her own tonnage.)

The screenplay is so full of wild, surreal conceits, like the two suburban pimps (played by Eddie Griffin and Katt Williams) muscling in on the town fair's kissing booth, Norbit really needed a director capable of building a world strange enough to contain them all. Unfortunately former Head of the Class star Brian Robbins just throws everybody on a backlot and overlights the heck out of it. But even such ramshackle assembly can't obscure the creativity on display.