PLOT: When the interim sheriff of a small town (Bob Odenkirk) tries to defuse a bank robbery, he inadvertently stumbles upon a conspiracy that engulfs the whole town, leading to a massively violent firefight.
REVIEW: I really enjoy Bob Odenkirk as an action hero. While most modern heroes seem reluctant to take a big-screen beating, Odenkirk is defined by his willingness to take a licking, with his characters aspirational in their resilience. Getting knocked down happens—but can you get back up again? Just like Nobody spun his Better Call Saul persona into a killer action role, Normal does the same with the scene-stealing turn he delivered in Fargo’s first season. Here, he plays a modest part-time sheriff (albeit one with a tragic past) who makes up for what he lacks in brawn with craftiness, and who’s easy to underestimate thanks to his easygoing demeanor.
Normal, which comes from Nobody writer Derek Kolstad, plays perfectly to Odenkirk’s strengths. It’s loaded to the brim with action, mostly in the form of shootouts (though there are some brutal hand-to-hand scraps peppered in). It recalls Ben Wheatley’s Free Fire, with about an hour of the movie taken up by a sustained action sequence spanning the geography of the town in which Odenkirk’s character, Ulysses, is trapped.
The plot is admittedly convoluted, with the town somehow tied to the Japanese Yakuza, meaning everyone is armed to the teeth and thoroughly corrupt, aside from a few stragglers. Mostly, it’s an excuse for Odenkirk to wield heavy firepower as he goes to war with the townsfolk, with doses of black humor in the way he dispatches some unlikely villains.
The movie is definitely a showcase for Odenkirk, but he’s less indestructible here than Hutch in Nobody. Ulysses doesn’t have the same hidden skill set—he’s competent with firearms thanks to his lawman training, but when he starts firing off heavy artillery, his being outmatched becomes part of the appeal. The fights are similarly desperate and violent, as Ulysses usually faces opponents as untrained as he is, with both sides using anything around them to inflict maximum damage.
Ulysses is also shown to be highly empathetic, striking up a strong bond with Jess McLeod’s Alex, a young veteran and daughter of the late sheriff, who’s considered an outsider in town due to her identity (nicely conveyed in a quick sequence). Her training proves valuable, and she shares a father/child kind of chemistry with Odenkirk. Lena Headey is solid as the town’s barkeep, while Ryan Allen is alternately funny and menacing as the deputy sheriff eyeing Ulysses’s job. And then there’s Henry Winkler, cast against type as the shady mayor, who scores one of the film’s biggest crowd-pleasing moments.
As much fun as I had with Normal, Wheatley and company struggled at times to keep the tension alive, with the device that set up the final showdown feeling a bit too convenient. That said, the climactic battle royale is terrific, so it’s ultimately worth it—even if the resolution leaves a few too many threads dangling for my taste.
In the end, Normal was exactly what I wanted from a Bob Odenkirk action flick. It’s packed with carnage, with him in top form as both action star and leading man. His chemistry with McLeod is especially strong, and if a follow-up were to focus on the two of them as a team, I’d be first in line to check it out.
