Motherless Brooklyn

Edward Norton plays a gumshoe that tries to get to the bottom of his boss' (Bruce Willis, in a brief but pivotal role) murder. Although it's more about why he was killed than who's behind it. It leads into a whole thing about abusing eminent domain, racial discrimination, and the eternal problem of people who think they have "vision" and should be able to run over people. 

Gugu Mbatha-Raw is the main female lead, playing a young law student involved in the fight against gentrification, but also more tied up in the whole thing than she suspects. Alec Baldwin's in here, playing an obnoxious, pushy shithead. Really stretching his range, but hell, he's good at it. Willem Dafoe shows up, playing an idealistic, nearly broken man.

Norton's thing is that his character has Tourette's, although neither he or anyone else seem to know that name for it. I have no idea how accurate the portrayal is. It isn't just swearing at random moments; it seems almost like word association. Where something he or someone else says or does triggers an outburst. Some times it's just muscle spasms or a need to touch the person on the shoulder. And according to him, it gets worse when he's stressed.

Norton makes sure to behave as someone who is used to his, who has developed workarounds, or knows situations to avoid. Knows how to try to muffle outbursts into his sleeve, make it look like a sneeze or a cough. Doesn't go to clubs or places with lots of people if he can avoid it. Apologizes almost on reflex to people. I'm actually surprised how nice most of the people he interacts with are about it. They're usually confused, but for all that he gets punched in this movie, only once is it because of an outburst. And that guy already hit him once before. 

The film is set some time after World War 2, so maybe they think it's from the war.

It's a leisurely paced movie. Norton's working off very incomplete information to start with, so his investigation isn't anything resembling straightforward. Which gets used to flesh out and build connections between characters, gradually reveal the political corruption, and let Norton decide what he's really hoping to accomplish. Some of it is personal, but he's not incapable of empathy.