Normal (2025 | USA | 90 minutes | Ben Wheatley)
Bob Odenkirk is firmly in his “Liam Neeson phase”: a middle-aged man reluctantly forced to kick a lot of ass in order to protect what really matters.
In Normal, he plays Ulysses, a rent-a-sheriff brought in after the previous sheriff dies in the sleepy town of, yes, Normal, MN. He’s meant to keep the seat warm until the heir apparent takes over, but for a town that prides itself on Midwestern blandness, something feels off. How does a place like this bankroll eight-figure upgrades to City Hall? Is the mayor’s (Henry Winkler) offer to extend his stay really no-strings-attached? And maybe it’s best not to look too closely at how his predecessor died. Of course, it all leads back to a stash of loot and some extremely unmerciful Japanese gangsters.
When a bank robbery from some desperate Normies Ulysses has taken a liking to (along with their dog, who is definitely a good boy), things start to go sideways. What follows is essentially one extended action sequence that quickly escalates from chucklesome to absurd to outright ridiculous. The cartoonish violence is so over-the-top it occasionally earns a laugh. I just wish it did so more often.
Prolific genre director Ben Wheatley helms this movie from a script by Odenkirk and Derek Kolstad (who wrote the previous Nobody films that also starred Odenkirk, as well as the John Wick films). I think they were going for something akin to Fargo meets The Naked Gun. The problem is that it doesn’t warrant a comparison to either. The Naked Gun movies throw so many jokes and bits and puns and gags at you it’s overwhelming and Fargo, the Minnesota-set black comedy/neo-noir, is the Coen Brothers’ very best film. Fight me.
Normal not without its merits: Bob Odenkirk is one of the easiest actors to enjoy watching and there are a few really funny moments, but this the type of movie that makes me cynical. Everyone involved seems to be in it for a paycheck and a laugh, but that laugh feels like it comes at the expense of the paying audience. I liked Nobody well enough but it is ground zero in the Bob Odenkirk-as-action-star arc. One of his co-stars, the mayor perhaps?, should tell him to stop before he’s asked to put on water skis.
Normal is now playing in theaters nationwide.