“Normal” is a spiritual cousin to “Fargo” until it channels its inner “Straw Dogs” on steroids.
Confused? You have no idea until you experience “Normal.”
Bob Odenkirk’s latest stab at action-star status is a head scratcher, a sly, smart character study that goes gonzo mid-film. Director Ben Wheatley (“Free Fire”) is no stranger to cinematic chaos, but even he loses all control of the story and characters.
It’s hard to get angry at a film with its tongue buried so deeply in its cheek, but you’ll also miss the movie it might have been.
Odenkirk stars as Ulysses, a temporary sheriff in the small town of Normal, Minn. He’s a stopgap solution, and he treats the gig accordingly.
Low-profile law and order stuff. Period. He’s nursing a deep personal wound, so this kind of part-time job is just what the doctor ordered.
Except he’s too good of a cop not to notice something is a bit, off, about the locals. The town’s Mayor (Henry Winkler) thinks he could be a good long-term solution to the sheriff vacancy, but even that sales pitch raises the lawman’s suspicions.
What is everyone hiding?
If you’ve seen the trailer, you know where this is headed. Can Ulysses crack the town’s mystery before one of a million bullets comes for him?
The first half of “Normal” is exactly what’s missing from too many movies today.
- A complicated, relatable hero
- Dialogue that’s both rich and full of life
- Minor character details that make this small town pop (think mustaches)
- A mystery that keeps you on the edge of your seat
And then the bullets start flying, and everything “Normal” established is thrown out the window.
It doesn’t help that the film’s moral compass is wobbly, at best. A pair of bank robbers are rebranded as heroes in short order. Some lazy dialogue trots out lazy class envy rhetoric, complete with attacks on those eeeevil banks.
Good guys become bad guys before reclaiming their hero status without rhyme or reason.
The one surprise? A key character is revealed as non-binary, but the film doesn’t overplay the moment or deliver a lecture, a la “Malcolm in the Middle.”
Except for all the rich character work completed in the film’s superior first half, that character (played by Jess McLeod) gets little attention or exploration.
Nor does Lena Headey, granted one strong scene early in the film and ignored until later. And that’s “Normal’s” biggest problem.
Why bother exploring the quaint town of Normal and its oddball residents if you’re going to toss every ounce of that hard work later? It’s fine for a movie to experience a dramatic shift, a la “Sinners” or “From Dusk ‘Til Dawn.” The two halves still have to function as a single unit, and that’s where “Normal” collapses.
The ultra-violence packs some obvious laughs, and some of the brutality is well staged. The rest is so chaotic and uninspiring, especially in a post-“John Wick” world.
Just don’t blame Odenkirk. He’s heartbreaking as Ulysses, a man crushed by a tragedy that had a spiraling impact on his life. The star doesn’t need much screen time to capture his character’s pain and resilience, but he does so with brutal efficiency.
In an alternate universe, “Normal” would find something less sensational to anchor its seismic mid-movie shift. In this universe, “Normal” is fascinating until it bludgeons us into submission.
HiT or Miss: “Normal” works hard to build a small town setting with a secret, but said secret proves the movie’s undoing.
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