Normal

Who on Earth could have ever foreseen “Saturday Night Live” and “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” writer Bob Odenkirk becoming a major action movie star around the age of 60?

Sketch comedy seemed not a phase but a calling for Odenkirk, especially when he went on to co-create and star in HBO’s “Mr. Show with Bob and David” in the mid-1990s. More than a decade later, as his resume grew with TV guest spots and indie comedy films, Odenkirk got tapped by Vince Gilligan to play a part on “Breaking Bad.” It was supposed to be a three-episode arc, but Odenkirk’s performance as sheisty lawyer and criminal accomplice Saul Goodman would change the course of his career, as he wound up sticking with that brilliant drama series until its very end. Then a couple of years later, he’d get his own spin-off series “Better Call Saul”, which would run for six acclaimed seasons.

While “Saul” was still in production, Odenkirk was already transitioning to film prominence. Gone were the days of terrible direct-to-video ensembles and four-figure grosses. Suddenly, Odenkirk was working with Spielberg, Pixar, and Greta Gerwig. Even with the film world’s demand for his talents at an all-time high, it was still a surprise to see Odenkirk land the lead role of Nobody, a 2021 wide release from Universal Pictures and John Wick creator Derek Kolstad. That well-reviewed, violent, stunt-filled action flick recouped its modest $16 million budget several times over, pleasing Universal enough to release Nobody 2 last year.

Now Odenkirk, who will turn 64 in the fall, must be considered a genuine movie star. With his genre cred established, he’s back for Normal, another shoot-’em-up written and produced by Kolstad, with Odenkirk also taking writing and producing credit. This one does not have one of the few major studios behind it, but after premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival last September, it was acquired by Magnolia Pictures, who are giving it a wide release this week.

Normal opens with a sequence in Japan that made me fear briefly that I was being shown the wrong movie. There, a Yakuza boss gives three associates who have let him down a chance to redeem themselves. They’ve just got to slice off their pinkies and accept another job. Two of the three do just that and get assigned to Normal, Minnesota, a (fictional) sleepy small town whose sheriff Gunderson (inevitably implying some kind of relationship to Fargo‘s Marge) has just died. The town has brought in Ulysses (Odenkirk) to fill in as interim sheriff for eight winter weeks until a new election can be held.

Ulysses isn’t Greek, but he has a tragic air to him all the same. He’s living out of a $55-a-night motel and just trying to keep things orderly until someone else takes over. But he senses something sordid is afoot and we suspect it relates to that seemingly disjointed prologue.

Normal is at its best in these early segments as it builds its world. It almost feels like the pilot for a television series, a series that would be quite kindred to FX’s “Fargo”, whose first season featured Odenkirk in the recurring role of Bemidji’s police chief. Kolstad’s script takes pleasure in introducing us to the locals of this little tundra town, from a mustachioed deputy (Billy MacLellan) with a humorously noisy new leather coat to the small business owners who deal with miscolored yarn and a hardware shopper’s gripes over Amazon’s price comparisons. I would have enjoyed a slow slice of life set in this community, but Kolstad has little interest in subverting expectations like that. The guy who wrote three John Wick and two Nobody movies isn’t going soft. Or evolving, unfortunately.

The big conspiracy in a small town premise, done so well in the original Wicker Man and sent up to perfection in Hot Fuzz, is less than inspired here. A couple of desperate, good-natured first-time bank robbers (Reena Jolly and Brendan Fletcher) get little from the till and a whole lot more when they demand to see the bank’s vault. It’s there we find our connection to the opening scene and a scenario that pits the entire town of Normal against their interim sheriff and those two unlucky would-be bank robbers.

The movie suffers from a lack of realism, which is certainly a charge you could throw at the supremely entertaining Wick movies. But those films established their rules convincingly enough for you to go along with the ride. Could John Wick really endure all the lethal chaos sent his way again and again? Probably not. But suspension of disbelief is achieved and sustained. Normal shifts gears on a dime from small town comedy to action extravaganza and it is too difficult to buy in and accept the stream of contrivances thrown at you.

The Wick movies also had Chad Stahelski and David Leitch at the helm, two expert stunt coordinators turned directors with a gift for presenting action in lively, original ways. Normal has Ben Wheatley, an English filmmaker with a spotty track record whose first/last big movie was Meg 2: The Trench. Wheatley struggles to render the blustery chaos with much excitement or cohesion. There are some deaths that come sooner than you expect, but there’s also a lot of time you’re not even sure what you’re seeing, a weird way to suddenly and uncharacteristically opt for realism amidst dark, grey, snowy combat.

There is an attempt to get this wild romp back on course and back to small town comedy, an implausible turn that might remind you of some significantly better 1980s comedies, which is undoubtedly an upgrade from the 2000s Wanted vibes of the middle. Normal does not stick the landing, but at least it’s giving you something different and less predictable in its final act.

Odenkirk remains a likable antihero, infusing this with more humanity than any obvious big name who might have had an interest in the role. I’d love to see him lead a movie that isn’t full of weapons next.