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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Peter Bradshaw

Normal review – Fargo meets The Firm in cheerfully weird Bob Odenkirk small-town thriller

Bob Odenkirk as a police officer with a mustache holds a walkie-talkie in a crowded, dimly lit indoor setting.
Goofy, quirky … Bob Odenkirk (front) in Normal. Photograph: AP

Bob Odenkirk continues his new career as the everyguy action hero in this cynically bleak gonzo actionfest, co-written by Odenkirk himself with John Wick creator Derek Kolstad. The director is Ben Wheatley, who shows the same kind of gunplay that was exhibited in his single-location mayhem spectacular Free Fire from 2017.

The setting is a place of Fargo-esque wholesomeness: a little town in Minnesota called Normal where Ulysses, played by Odenkirk, shows up as the interim sheriff, a decent guy just filling in after the previous sheriff was found dead in the snow in strange circumstances. Ulysses is depressed and battling a drinking problem after an unexplained violent end to his last job, which caused him to separate from his wife.

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