Normal

This darkly comic action-thriller combines a wicked sense of humour with some impressively staged action sequences, while also subverting expectations in respect of the usual neo-Western tropes.  Great fun from start to finish.

Premise:  Ulysses Richardson (Bob Odenkirk) arrives in the small town of Normal, Minnesota, to take the post as Interim Sheriff while elections are arranged to choose a permanent replacement.  He and his deputies fill their days dealing with minor disputes and parking violations … until an attempted bank robbery sets off an unexpectedly violent chain of events.

Review:

The first thing I should probably make clear is that despite the fact it stars Bob Odenkirk and was written by Derek Kolstad, Normal is a very different film from Nobody (and its lesser sequel, Nobody 2).  Whereas those films were centred around an apparently normal family man who was, in fact, a highly trained government killer, Bob Odenkirk’s character in Normal is an everyman who’s simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.  Similarly, whereas Nobody takes place in a heighten reality populated by super-trained assassins, Normal is essentially a more grounded action thriller, that riffs on the neo-Western genre and the trope of the lone sheriff in an isolated small town.

The second thing to make clear is that although this film is (brilliantly) directed by Ben Wheatley, it’s perhaps his most accessible film yet (if you don’t count Meg 2: The Trench).  So if you found High-Rise too impenetrable or Kill List too dark, I would still strongly recommend that you give Normal a chance.  The Ben Wheatley film that Normal reminded me of most was 2017’s Free Fire – but I’d say that Normal is even more fun and even more accessible.

“…has a deliciously dark sense of humour…”

Despite its tight 91-minute runtime, Normal takes its time to establish the town and the characters before events take a turn – and the film’s all the better for it.  The time spent in the company of Bob Odenkirk’s “Sheriff Ulysses” (as the locals call him, even though he should presumably be called “Sheriff Richardson”) as he gets to know the eccentric cast of townsfolk is great fun, with Deputy Mike Nelson (Billy MacLellan) being a particular comedic highlight.  The first act is packed full of fun little sight gags (like Ulysses’ amateurish temporary name badge, or the miscalculated “Parade Route” label on Deputy Mike Nelson’s map), and the sequences where the lawman from the “big town” meets the peculiar colleagues and residents of his new “village” reminded me (in a good way) of the modern classic Hot Fuzz.

When the movie shifts gears and becomes an action thriller, it still retains its deliciously dark sense of humour, with the comedy often coming from how unexpectedly violent an incident becomes.  Ulysses never becomes an invincible one-man army in the way that Bob Odenkirk’s character does in Nobody, and instead he relies on his grit and resourcefulness, and a sense that he can’t bring himself not to care about doing the right thing (which is, of course, a stalwart theme in the neo-Western genre).

“…had me laughing (and wincing) from beginning to end…”

Alongside Bob Odenkirk as the Sheriff, and Billy MacLellan and Ryan Allen as his Deputies, the town is populated by an entertaining bunch of actors, including Henry Winkler as the Mayor and Lena Headey as the local bartender.  Non-binary actor Jess McLeod makes an impression as the grown-up child of the town’s former sheriff, and Peter Shinkoda (one of those actors whose face you’ll probably recognise even if you can’t place him) appears as a character from the prologue that hints at what’s to come later on.

Normal exceeded my expectations and had me laughing (and wincing) from beginning to end, which is pretty much all you can ask for from a darkly comic action thriller.  The dialogue is sharp, the humour consistently hits the mark, and the action delivers the thrills – making Normal a complete entertainment package.