After two beat-em-ups in which he had to be a Nobody, Bob Odenkirk is allowed a promotion to being Normal for the latest entry into his post-Better Call Saul comedic ageing action man oeuvre. He’s even brought the Nobody (and, of course, John Wick) writer Derek Kolstad with him, though Normal is ultimately less concerned with being a Wick-like, ending up more like an American Hot Fuzz, even bringing in Brit director Ben Wheatley for a more parochial flavour of carnage. The end result is a fun mash-up of its obvious inspirations that is briskly entertaining but doesn’t come close to emulating either of their uniquely brilliant highs.
Set in the town of Normal, Minnesota (with the very funny town motto of, simply, ‘we like it here’), Odenkirk plays Ulysses, a sheriff who specialises on filling in as a sort of substitute when a town’s top lawman is suddenly indisposed and there hasn’t been time to elect a new one. Normal is his latest assignment after the former sheriff, Gunderson (one of the rare straight Fargo references you’ll find here), died in suspicious-yet-mundane circumstances and his gig is just to hold the fort for eight weeks before one of the local deputies is inevitably elected to the post permanently.
Of course, Normal is far from normal, and it’s not long before Ulysses – trying as he might to stay out of really investigating but unable to ignore his instincts – is uncovering the source of the town’s bizarre wealth (a community fundraiser for the town hall raked in nearly $17 million) and its ties to the Yakuza. It is, of course, very silly and not half as well-observed as Hot Fuzz’s quaint evils (Kolstad’s dialogue is mostly enjoyable, but Odenkirk is saddled with some below-par narration), but as an excuse for a massive firefight of Ulysses against the entire town during a blinding snowstorm, it’ll do.
The 90-minute runtime really helps with this, Wheatley giving you too little time to poke holes in the mad plotting in the midst of the action (although this move can’t quite save an ending that, even in this absurd and heightened tone, stretches credulity past breaking point). Normal really does zip along, Wheatley getting us to the point where Ulysses is shooting at his own deputies as soon as humanly possible. Odenkirk, of course, steps up well as the only anchor point in a story where everyone else is basically a day player (even bigger names like Henry Winkler as the mayor and Lena Headey as a perceptive bartender barely make an impression).
As is Wheatley’s main specialty, all the action here is very, very painful looking – nothing as vicious as Kill List though – and backed by a bruising soundscape of machine guns thundering and blood squelching. There’s nothing particularly innovative in the choreography or kills (especially compared to something like Wick), but the consistent crunchiness of metal on bone, combined with Odenkirk’s increasingly heroic performance, keeps the fights involving. Brief and throwaway, Normal is a solid action-comedy snack just before the summer’s big blockbusters start rolling in.
Jack Blackwell – Film Reviews 