Sometimes, all you need to rekindle your passion for filmmaking is actor and producer Bob Odenkirk (Breaking Bad, Fargo Season 1, Nobody, Better Call Saul, The Bear, Nobody 2) with a gun, almost ten years after the release of your best film. Such is the case with Ben Wheatley, whose post-Free Fire career was…um…baffling, to say the least. A bunch of for-hire gigs was sandwiched in between auteur-driven works, and all were terrible. The interest of the filmmaker’s work, in either Kill List, A Field in England, and Down Terrace, was nowhere to be found as Wheatley started to become lazy, even when allegedly “caring” about what was on screen.
With his latest work, Normal, Wheatley has finally made something that’s as aesthetically (and thematically) playful as Free Fire, even if it stumbles on occasion. However, “stumbling on occasion” is much better than fumbling the bag, and I think Wheatley enjoys occasionally engaging in messy thematic underpinnings facing Normal’s central protagonist, Sheriff Ulysses Richardson (Bob Odenkirk) instead of doing something with no passion or care for anything that’s on screen (see Meg 2: The Trench, as the nadir of a fairly abysmal filmography).
Plot Summary
Ulysses has been appointed as an interim sheriff in the town of Normal, Minnesota, following the sudden death of its previous sheriff. At first, everything seems quiet and relatively uneventful in this normal (heh) town. However, things begin to unravel once a group of petty thieves attempts to rob the city’s bank and find something they shouldn’t have. It’s easy to guess that the movie will discuss corruption rotting the town, which Ulysses slowly unpeels when he speaks with Normal’s mayor (played by Henry Winkler). He clearly has something to hide, which the interim sheriff will find out in a way he probably didn’t want to.
Discussion
Obvious comparisons to Ilya Naishuller’s Nobody (and Timo Tjahjanto’s incredible sequel) will be made. Yet, Wheatley distinguishes himself from the onset by making his never-ending bouts of carnage more immediate and sickly. In comparison, Naishuller and Tjahjanto dealt with a messier character who’s so tired of his past life that he would rather not awaken the giant within again. Thus, the action is more erratic and less “perfect,” while Wheatley thrives in blowing up or crushing bodies from one elaborate situation to the next. Essentially, it’s a giant punchline that yields surprisingly effective results.
Sure, it recalls the insanity of Free Fire, but Wheatley seems far more playful this time around, delivering violent thrills that grow more cartoonish as the film progresses to a morbidly funny conclusion. His sick sense of humor is on full display, which can put off some viewers. Then again, it certainly didn’t deter this critic, who’s been sorely missing this vivid element of Wheatley’s oeuvre, especially when they’re almost always visual. Normal shows how much he’s got a great eye for this sort of stuff, especially when the bank robbery begins. The gunfights recall the sickening exploitation of S. Craig Zahler’s Dragged Across Concrete.
Bob Odenkirk’s Role
It’s purposefully chintzy, though Zahler employed that artifice for entirely different means than what Wheatley is attempting to accomplish. The latter imbues Ulysses’ journey of self-actualization with images of a tangible spiritual, almost otherworldly, dimension. Nightmares of his past creep up on him even further when he’s confronted with violent activities, which he attempts to suppress by catching the gun’s last bullet with his bare hands. He hasn’t chosen violence, but it’s certainly following him everywhere he goes. In that regard, Odenkirk’s portrayal of a Nobody-adjacent character is less fatigued and more haunted by anything he touches.
Living with his protagonist’s perpetual visions of Hell, Odenkirk gives one of the most visceral performances of his career and another worthy entry in his latest foray into action filmmaking. There is a version of Normal that’s far more esoteric in its exploration of Ulysses (perhaps even exploring the character in relation to Homer’s Iliad? Why not!), but the lean and mean ninety-minute package we’ve got still gets the job done. It might not deepen the protagonist as much as we would’ve liked. Still, it’s an immense pleasure to see Wheatley operate at a level he hasn’t worked with for some time. Meanwhile, Odenkirk has fun acting in a literal cartoon that grows more outlandish as the action scenes get bigger, especially when the Yakuza show up.
Final Thoughts on Normal
I’ve already said too much by mentioning the Yakuza, but I’ll just say this: genre fans are in for a real treat with what is one of the most exhilarating action films of this year. Normal may not reach the heights of Yuen Woo-ping’s Blades of the Guardians, but does it really need to? As long as Ben Wheatley no longer phones it in, that’s all that matters…
Ben Wheatley, Derek Kolstad, and Bob Odenkirk’s Normal is now playing in theaters!
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