When you get an action film called Normal, you expect a degree of irony to it. And with John Wick screenwriter Derek Kolstad and Free Fire director Ben Wheatley behind it, you expect that title to be totally ironic. But Normal, starring Bob Odenkirk as a temporary sheriff in a sleepy Minnesota town who suddenly finds himself besieged by its shotgun-toting denizens, is surprisingly average. Well, maybe just above-average, thanks to Odenkirk’s action hero bonafides and Wheatley’s punchy and propulsive direction.
Normal follows Sheriff Ulysses (Odenkirk), a man haunted by a past failure and looking for an easy job to weather his messy divorce. He takes on the role of interim sheriff in Normal, Minnesota, a nondescript Midwestern town that seems like every other economically depressed small town in the country — with a few exceptions. The police armory is filled with military-grade weapons and technology. The mayor’s house is a swanky, billion-dollar mansion. And the town seems to have raised a suspiciously high amount of money for various infrastructure projects.
