Paul Newman went through a period, for several years following 1961’s The Hustler, when superstition apparently prompted him to insist that several subsequent anti-hero single-word films begin with the letter “H,” in some cases prompting script character name changes: Hud, Harper and Hombre.
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| Confronted by unexpectedly overwhelming odds, Keith (Brendan Fletcher, left) Sheriff Ulysses (Bob Odenkirk) and Lori (Reena Jolly) become unusual allies. |
(Okay, in fairness, his family guy in Nobody and its sequel wasn’t that ordinary. But still...)
Odenkirk stars as Ulysses (no last name given), hired as a temporary substitute sheriff in the quaint little township of Normal, Minnesota. It’s a sleepy community, looking very much like a throwback to 1950s Americana, with an entryway city sign that reads “We like it here.”
Ulysses has greeted this temporary assignment as a welcome respite from both marital woes and severe moral trauma suffered during the line of duty. He’s scheduled to be in Normal for just eight weeks, as an emergency stand-in for former Sheriff Gunderston (Pat Harris), who died unexpectedly ... under, as Ulysses soon discovers, rather unusual circumstances.
But that isn’t his problem. As he and Deputy Mike Nelson (Billy MacLellan) cruise Normal’s downtown streets, Ulysses expresses his desire — via voice-over, and (later) unanswered phone calls to his estranged wife, Penny — to leave the town exactly as he found it. He views himself as a “midwife with a gun,” merely helping a transition.
He meets glad-handing Mayor Kibner (Henry Winkler); local doctor/coroner Walter Vilie (David Lawrence Brown); yarn and craft shop owner Mary Beth (Megan MacArton); hardware store owner Maynard (Carson Nattrass); bar owner Moira (Lena Headey, still well remembered as Cersei Lannister, on Game of Thrones); cheerful sheriff’s office receptionist Sally Johnson (Lauren Cochrane); and co-Deputy Blaine Anderson (Ryan Allen), who eagerly anticipates being elected permanent sheriff.
Everybody treats Ulysses kindly, but with an odd touch of amusement or even condescension.
But this isn’t actually where the film begins. A brief prologue, set in Osaka, introduces a powerful and vicious Yakuza boss (Takahiro Inoue, as The Oyabun) who — during an early sign of the carnage to come — enforces a rather grisly ritual to determine which of his men will be dispatched for “a job” in Minnesota.
(Guess where.)
Back in Normal, Ulysses — his mild, easygoing demeanor actually concealing sharp perception and solid police skills — notices that some things in town aren’t, well, normal. While similar communities across the country are struggling, Normal somehow raised $16.8 million for a new Town Hall. Gunderston’s daughter, Alex (Jess McLeod) — ex-military, once exemplary, but now seriously troubled — is shunned by everybody else.
More critically, the rather scruffy Lori (Reena Jolly) and Keith (Brendan Fletcher) don’t seem to belong.
This is all bamboozling preamble, to a gleefully macabre and darkly humorous script by Odenkirk and Derek Kolstad.
Everything seems quite peaceful, until — quite suddenly, while Ulysses and his staff are all in the Sheriff’s department — an alarm goes off, alerting a robbery at the Normal Savings and Loan. The scene is pure chaos over at that establishment, where the masked Lori and Keith are making hash of their robbery attempt. The yield is pitiful, because — as one teller shakily explains — “Nobody uses cash anymore!”
So, Keith demands access to the vault ... which prompts a very odd reaction from the manager (Aaron Merke). But that pales in comparison to how Deputies Anderson and Nelson behave, once Ulysses enters the bank, to assess the situation.
At which point, all hell breaks loose.
What follows is the epitome of gallows humor, as an increasingly bewildered Ulysses scrambles to survive, while trying to make sense of what’s going down. The eyebrow-lifting scope of his plight prompts him into an unexpected decision, guided by a variation of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.”
On top of which, who else — if anybody, in this weird town — can be trusted?
Ulysses is quite resourceful, and he has much with which to work; early scenes established the unusual degree to which the Sheriff’s Department, hardware store and even bar are laden with weapons and other handy items, such as (this is a cute foreshadowing) old-fashioned “stump removers.”
Director Ben Wheatley, Odenkirk and Kolstad spare no sensibilities, with what comes; blood flows freely, bodies are mangled, and enemies dispatched in gleefully gruesome ways. (My favorite: death by vertical store sign, which descends like a massive broken clock hand.)
All the while, The Oyabun and his yakuza warriors — alerted to things having gone wrong — are en route to Normal, via the fastest flight possible. At which point, then what?
You’ll never guess ... because Odenkirk and Kolstad have one more unexpected card to play in their cheeky script.
Odenkirk delivers a consistently amusing performance as a soul-weary, decent guy haunted by a past event, who — despite everything going to hell around him — tries to maintain a degree of honesty, fairness and trust. In this respect, he grants far more emotional depth to Ulysses than, say, Jason Statham brings to any of his cookie-cutter avengers.
MacLellan is hilarious as Deputy Nelson, an apparently hapless doofus who probably couldn’t write a parking ticket, let alone face off against actual criminals. Winkler is a stitch as the prissy, pompous mayor, and Headey does fine work during Moira’s two deeply personal chats with Ulysses.
Jolly, Fletcher and McLeod upturn expectations as Lori, Keith and Alex.
Mind you, mainstream viewers — and folks with delicate sensibilities — will be horrified by what the rest of us find hilariously over the top; Normal never rises above its “gory guilty pleasure” status.
But Constant Companion and I had a good time ... for which we make no apologies.
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