Normal is a recent film which has been quite a hit, and it stars Bob Odenkirk, who co-wrote the story with Derek Kolstad on which Kolstad based his screenplay. If those names seem familiar to you, then you may recall that they featured in my recent review of Normal, which also starred Odenkirk and was written by Kolstad. And there is a similarity in style between the two films, though the storyline is very different.
In a gruesome start to the film, a Japanese gang boss exacts a nasty revenge on three of his men who have messed up before announcing that the gang has to deal with a problem in Normal, Minnesota. We then move to that (fictitious but ironically and rather wonderfully named) small town. Of course, life there proves to be anything but normal.
Odenkirk plays Ulysses, an interim sheriff who has been sent to supervise law and order after the untimely and - Ulysses soon discovers - rather suspicious death of his predecessor. Normal seems quiet enough, and Ulysses isn't unduly stretched at first. The local mayor (nicely played, as ever, by the estimable Henry Winkler) suggests he might like to take the job on a permanent basis, but it's pretty clear that what the mayor really likes about Ulysses is his low-key approach to law enforcement. What is going on in the town?
The answer emerges after a young couple stage an inept robbery at the local bank. The central idea of the story is a neat one, although I'm not sure that Derek Kolstad made as much of it as he could. The screenplay is awash with the often cartoonish violence that was a weakness of Nobody, and here I think Kolstad overdoes it. Again, Odenkirk does well in the lead role, but the earlier film was more character-driven than this one, and I think the story was more effective as a result.
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