Bob Odenkirk continues his new career as the everyguy action hero in this cynically bleak gonzo actionfest, co-written by Odenkirk himself with John Wick creator Derek Kolstad. The director is Ben Wheatley, who shows the same kind of gunplay that was exhibited in his single-location mayhem spectacular Free Fire from 2017.
A Fargo-esque Setting with a Dark Secret
The setting is a place of Fargo-esque wholesomeness: a little town in Minnesota called Normal where Ulysses, played by Odenkirk, shows up as the interim sheriff, a decent guy just filling in after the previous sheriff was found dead in the snow in strange circumstances. Ulysses is depressed and battling a drinking problem after an unexplained violent end to his last job, which caused him to separate from his wife.
Quirky Characters and Hidden Depths
Everywhere he looks, Ulysses sees goofy, quirky, small-town normality, with no crime to solve other than petty neighbour disputes. His deputy Mike (Billy MacLellan) is a smiley and supportive lawman who is thrilled that he and his boss have almost exactly the same moustache. The mayor (Henry Winkler) is smoothly satisfied with everything. Local bar owner Moira (Lena Headey) is spikier – but she too seems content with the bland all-American uneventfulness of the place.
A Chain of Violence and Corruption
Yet something is very wrong: when a bank robbery happens in this one-horse town, events are set in train which reveal to Ulysses that everything about Normal, like the blandly prosperous law practice in Sydney Pollack’s film The Firm, rests on a single, awful secret that he is about to uncover. It’s entertaining and bizarre chaos, anchored by Odenkirk’s hangdog air of gloomy resignation to the violent mess which he has to clean up.
Normal is in UK and Irish cinemas from 15 May.
