Minnesota not-so-nice
Made-in-Manitoba action flick tips its hat to neo-westerns
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British director Ben Wheatley has always been adventurous in his penchant for traversing genre boundaries, including hardcore horror (The Kill List), the big-budget monster movie (The Meg 2), the cerebral art film (High-Rise), and his own invention, the acid-trip period piece (A Field in England).
With his Manitoba-shot latest, Normal, Wheatley adds neo-western to the list, citing inspirations such as Bad Day at Black Rock, John Sturges’s 1955 thriller in which a one-armed stranger (Spencer Tracy) arrives in a small town to investigate the suspicious death of a friend.
The stranger in town here is Ulysses (Better Call Saul’s Bob Odenkirk, completing a trifecta of locally lensed action movies along with Nobody and Nobody 2), who has come to the Minnesota burg of Normal to act as an interim sheriff after the suspicious death of the previous officeholder.
Magnolia Pictures
Things get chaotic when Bob Odenkirk moves to Normal, Minn.
Ulysses has both his arms, but he arrives bearing the after-effects of a trauma from his previous job. And at first blush, Normal is a town where he can heal, given that the worst thing he encounters is a shouting match at the hardware store and a lackadaisical parking job by the saucy local barkeep Moira (Lena Headey).
Certainly, the town is an exponent of Minnesota-nice, embodied by the solicitous Mayor Kibner (Henry Winkler): “You could build a whole new life here in Normal because we really celebrate the community.”
But the “nice” proves thin when an alarm sounds at the local bank, and Ulysses tries to de-escalate a situation involving a pair of in-over-their-heads bank robbers, Lori (Reena Jolly) and Keith (Brendan Fletcher).
Scripted by Derek Kolstad, whose sardonic approach to action was notable in John Wick and both Nobody movies, Normal has a decidedly satiric feel, suggesting that the heart has gone out of the American heartland. Unlike the ultra-choreographed violence of John Wick or Nobody, the action here feels more chaotic, befitting Odenkirk’s character, who is in a little over his head himself.
To his great credit, Wheatley hired a lot of local talent for big and small parts, notably local actress Jolly, whose bank robber proves to be more sympathetic than most of the straight townsfolk.
Indeed, the subversive aspect of the film may be augmented by familiarity with the local cast. If you’ve seen the soft-hearted Carson Nattrass choking up while introducing the latest season of Rainbow Stage (where he is artistic director), it’s absolutely startling to see him own the role of the vicious Maynard, the owner of that aforementioned hardware store.
The same goes for juicy roles played by Aaron Merke as the bank manager and his partner Lauren Cochrane as a clerk in the sheriff’s office.
Magnolia Pictures / Courtesy Everett Collection
Lena Headey (left) and Bob Odenkirk star in Normal, a Manitoba-shot neo-western which has Odenkirk playing the new sheriff in town.
It’s a pity the film’s distributors chose not to play the film in Canadian cinemas. I saw it at the midnight screening at the Toronto International Film Festival, which was the ideal venue; the audience was so enthusiastic, you almost wouldn’t notice that the movie’s action climax is one too many.
In any case, if you’re going the VOD route, invite as many people as possible.
randall.king.arts@gmail.com
In a way, Randall King was born into the entertainment beat.
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MOVIE REVIEW
Normal
Starring: Bob Odenkirk, Lena Headey and Henry Winkler
● Video on Demand
● 91 minutes
★★★½ out of five
Other voices
Admittedly, the dialogue could be sharper — a few too many zingers zonk out -— but Normal goes about its carnage with such sincerity, it’s impossible to resist.
— Simon Crook, Time Out
Normal may not be groundbreaking, but it does come equipped with a wicked spirit and some great B-movie energy.
— Stephanie Zacharek, Time Magazine
The thing about overtly referencing a film as funny and deft as Fargo is that it’s only going to make us think about Fargo, so your film better be just as good — or at least come close. Alas, Normal does not.
— Katie Walsh, Tribune News Service
The reassuring masterstroke from Wheatley is that he never loses sight of the sheriff’s humanity.
— Kevin Maher, The Times (UK)
In a way, Randall King was born into the entertainment beat.
Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.
Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
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