The fictional town of Normal, Minnesota, in scribe Derek Kolstad (John Wick) and director Ben Wheatley’s (Kill List) R-rated neo-Western, Normal, is anything but. On the surface, it looks and sounds like an everyday, “normal” town. Population two thousand (or less), in the middle of a featureless wasteland, a town that time hasn’t forgotten, but everybody else has.
And into the town of Normal, Minnesota, strolls — or rather, rolls — Ulysses Richardson (Bob Odenkirk), a nondescript, middle-aged, substitute sheriff. A man with barely a past and even less of a future, Richardson might as well be another Man With No Name or a high-plains drifter motivated by self-preservation and/or vengeance. In the film, he’s the equivalent of a strapped substitute teacher, but otherwise, he’s just a placeholder in human form. With the town’s elected sheriff somewhat mysteriously dead by a not uncommon misadventure, Richardson steps in, doing what a small-town sheriff does: riding around in a sheriff’s car, greeting the town’s residents on his periodic patrols, and breaking up minor disagreements. That is, until the next election selects a new sheriff to protect and serve the town of the title.
Except, of course, the town of Normal, Minnesota, is anything but “normal.” Everything — and everybody — is just slightly off. The locals hold Richardson’s glance too long or grow quiet when he shows up in their midst. Not that Richardson, the definition of “chill,” notices, or if he does, doesn’t care. He just wants to mark the time, make sure the powers-that-be transfer his weekly paycheque into his bank account, and move on to parts unknown when his contract runs out.
Borrowing, if not outright stealing, a key plot point from Edgar Wright’s 2004 action-comedy, Hot Fuzz, and last year’s under-appreciated action-thriller, Ballerina, the townspeople have traded in their souls for cold, hard cash courtesy of the Yakuza. In exchange for regular payments, the town protects part of the Yakuza’s fortune, specifically tangible, physical assets that can’t be easily smuggled out of the United States. It’s a purely transactional relationship that, until now, has worked for both the townspeople and the Yakuza.
An ill-advised, poorly planned bank robbery, however, initiated by inept thieves Lori (Reena Jolly) and Keith (Brendan Fletcher), triggers a silent alarm. In less than 10 hours, the Yakuza will appear in Normal, Minnesota, and they expect a full accounting of both events that led to the alarm and of their U.S.-held property. That, in turn, leads the townspeople, each armed with high-calibre weaponry, to respond in kind to the bank thieves, with an unfortunate Richardson caught in the middle, forced to choose sides, and ultimately, fight for his life and the lives of his inadvertent allies.
Outside of Odenkirk’s bland, underwritten sheriff, predictably turned action hero, Normal’s thinly developed cast of characters includes not one, but two duplicitous deputy sheriffs, Blaine Anderson (Ryan Allen) and Mike Nelson (Billy MacLellan), Normal’s avuncular Mayor Kibner (Henry Winkler), bar owner and potential romantic interest Moira (Lena Headey), and Alex (Jess McLeod), the late sheriff’s disgruntled daughter with an incredibly handy military background.
Short on originality but long on stunt-heavy set pieces, with a dash of mean-spirited, if not entirely unwelcome, black humour, and Odenkirk’s late-career turn into action heroics, Normal isn’t the worst way to spend your time, but it’s also far from the best way to spend said non-renewable resource. It’s just not a particularly memorable one, leaning as it does on surface-deep pleasures (e.g., running firefights in a snowbound town, Odenkirk’s slightly stale middle-aged action-hero charms, a brutally efficient running time), and unfortunately, not much else.
Normal opened theatrically on Friday, April 17, via Magnolia Pictures.
