NORMAL
***
Directed by Ben Wheatley.
Starring Bob Odenkirk, Henry Winkler, Lena Headey, Billy MacLellan.
Action, US, 91 Minutes, Certificate 15.
Released in Cinemas in the UK on 15th May by Sky and Vertigo Releasing.
It is quite odd to think how normal (that’s the name of the film!) it has become to see Bob Odenkirk mowing down large numbers of folk with all sorts of heavy calibre weapons these days. Even if you only knew him for his multi-dimensional portrait of sleazy lawyer Saul Goodman from BREAKING BAD and its superior spin-off BETTER CALL SAUL, it was strange to see this one time godfather of the alternative American comedy scene making a turn so convincingly and successfully into acclaimed drama. Then came NOBODY, an action film from 2021 that made waves by playing on Odenkirk’s seemingly ill-suited appropriateness, both physically and in attitude, to being a convincing bloodthirsty action hero. After that films success and last years sequel, it seems that Odenkirk may have become addicted to this type of role by once again teaming up with that films screenwriter Derek Kolstad, also responsible for unleashing John Wick on the world, for yet another round of the quiet man with certain weapon skills sub-genre. The results here however are far more off-kilter, especially when director Ben Wheatley grafts his own offbeat sensibility to this action film that gets odder and odder as it goes along.
As well as the action protagonist character that we now expect from Odenkirk, we are also reminded of his character Bill Oswalt, a naive police chief in the first season of the FARGO television series. This similarity may only be superficial here with the similar uniform and small mid-western town setting, but it is also hard to dispel the wintry backdrop and blood soaked shenanigans when watching this. At the centre of the escalating mayhem is Odenkirk’s acting sheriff Ulysses Richardson, a seemingly unassuming lawman drafted into the small, yet exceedingly prosperous, town of Normal. “We like it here!” exclaims the towns sign, but Ulysses soon begins to wonder why certain residents are so positive about this remote town, including the boisterous Mayor Kibner played against type by Henry Winkler, and eager to please deputy Mike Nelson, Billy MacLellan. Wondering how exactly his predecessor died, Ulysses soon discovers the town's dirty secret when he is caught in the middle of a poorly executed bank robbery, realising the corrupt heart of the town somehow involves a clan of Yakuza who will do anything to cover up their own secrets. Ulysses however is so much more than just a temporary employee in the wrong place at the wrong time, a fact that the heavily armed residents of Normal soon learn to regret.
The premise may make all of this sound like your now typical Odenkirk/Kolstad joint but the added presence of Wheatley and his gleeful tendencies to play around with genre make it anything but. Since his breakthrough horror KILL LIST the writer and director has rarely employed the same style twice, for proof of this, look at his last two features; BULK and THE MEG 2: THE TRENCH, two films that sit at opposite ends of every scale that you could probably think of applying to genre films. Such an approach can sometimes lead to work that feels anonymous in terms of style and voice, for instance does anyone remember his Netflix remake of Hitchcock’s REBECCA starring Armie Hammer? This feels like safer and steadier ground, a chance to flex his creative muscles in the shoot ‘em up field for the first time in a decade since FREE FIRE. Like that film, there is an awful lot of people pointing guns, and other various weapons of all sizes, at each other and having parts of themselves shot off in a grisly and humorous fashion. Unlike that film there is a slight swerve in another unexpected direction that slightly unmoors proceedings.
Without going into spoilers the third act of the film feels like it has drifted in from another script. More farcical than the already heightened events that have come before, it feels at odds with what has come before in a number of ways. One character for instance goes through such an about turn in terms of attitude and how other characters perceive him that it feels like an all too hasty rewrite. And despite receiving a high billing in the cast list, Lena Headey is entirely wasted here with the three scenes that she appears in leaving you wondering if there was some heavy lifting done through reshoots and/or rewriting here.
Such issues can be forgiven up to a point. At the least you can admire Odenkirk and Kolstad for attempting to do something quite different from the NOBODY franchise. While the sight of Odenkirk shooting up the joint and getting into physical brawls may not hold the surprise it once had, Odenkirk’s character work and natural comedy skills keep him more than an arms length away from the likes of Liam Neeson, whose vast array of elder action heroes are seemingly interchangeable with each other. Odenkirk also seems to work well with Wheatley’s own off kilter stylings, suggesting maybe another collaboration between the two, in action or another genre, could provide more proof of this. In the meantime however this will do. While it may err on the side of predictability at times, in terms of its own narrative and its leading man's action hero iconography, there is enough here to make this a pleasant and interesting, if not entirely successful watch.
Iain MacLeod