Film Review: NORMAL (2025): Ben Wheatley’s Small Town Action Movie Isn’t Plausible at All But it’s Still a Blast
Normal Review
Normal (2025) Film Review, a movie directed by Ben Wheatley, written by Derek Kolstad and Bob Odenkirk and starring Bob Odenkirk, Ryan Allen, Billy MacLellan, Henry Winkler, Lena Headey, Reena Jolly, Brendan Fletcher, Peter Shinkoda, Jess McLeod, Dan De Jaeger, John C. MacDonald, David Lawrence Brown, Derek Barnes, Carson Nattrass and Chad Bruce.
Filmmaker Ben Wheatley makes the perfect use of “every man,” Bob Odenkirk, who plays a sheriff in Wheatley’s new action picture, Normal. This is anything but your typical “normal” action movie and Odenkirk certainly has a blast in the film’s violent shoot em’ up scenes. Normal is actually the name of the town that this movie takes place in and that would be a small town in Minnesota, to be precise. Odenkirk plays Sheriff Ulysses who comes to work temporarily in Normal and discovers that all hell is about to break loose in a Quentin Tarantino movie-inspired style.
Bodies are piled up left and right by the movie’s ridiculously wild ending and the movie has no sense of realism whatsoever. It revolves around the Japanese mob at certain times and the picture is probably the most politically incorrect film of the year, thus far. It’s still a lot of fun to watch as Odenkirk’s Ulysses must use anything and everything in front of him as a weapon to defeat the criminals at his disposal and, ultimately, save the day.
Henry Winkler (The Fonz from the old TV show, Happy Days) is back in his first major movie role in years as the Mayor and, of course, Winkler has fun with this role the best way he knows how. Winkler’s character wants to make Ulysses the permanent sheriff in town, but when Ulysses sees there is more than a fair share of crooked cops in the town of Normal, all hell breaks loose in a way that could only work in an Odenkirk action picture such as this one.
Reena Jolly and Brendan Fletcher play a couple of bank robbers in Normal and both performers are solid in their roles within the movie. Both of these thieves team up with Ulysses to get to the bottom of what is going on in the town and to discover who is really able to be trusted in Normal, Minnesota. People are killed in Normal like it’s normal; hence the film’s title. Imagine Grosse Pointe Blank meets Fargo by the way of Quentin Tarantino and you get an idea of what this film is really like at its core.
Normal is a bit dated in many respects, though. Gun violence is a major issue these days and the characters are shooting people on-screen like they’re having fun, the good guys, in particular. Of course, the movie is meant to be taken lightly, but there are some violent scenes such as when the head of the Japanese Mafia is finally killed at the end and blood squirts out in an overly realistic way. This movie needed to pick a tone of either that of a comedy or that of a straight action picture. Instead, the movie wants to have its cake and eat it too. Normal is irresponsible in the violence it portrays even if one can have a good time watching it.
Japanese gangsters versus Midwestern common folk is a high-level concept and this film milks it for all its worth. This movie pushes the boundaries of the cartoon-like violence it portrays, occasionally coming off as a little uncomfortable at times due to its uneasy mix of comedy and brutality.
Lena Headey, always reliable, is fine as a key member in the supporting cast as Moira, a female bartender character who may not be as good as one could expect from her initial entrance into the movie’s plot. There’s also a snowstorm that helps to create tension in the action sequences later in the movie and the film has fun with its over-the-top scenarios which include a handy power outage to level off the story line.
Another notable performance is that of Jess McLeod as Alex, the daughter of the former sheriff who teams up with Ulysses to make sure justice is properly served. McLeod excels in terms of having a screen presence that is easy to enjoy watching. Peter Shinkoda as the Japanese key heavy is also of note for delivering a performance that is wickedly appropriate for this genre.
This is Odenkirk’s movie to have fun acting in and he hams it up. Winkler is also solid in his supporting performance, proving the man who played the Fonz still has the personality he was so well-known and respected for on television and in comedy movies like The Waterboy. Odenkirk even co-wrote Normal as well. This film goes all out with its wall-to-wall violence in a way that surpasses even Odenkirk’s Nobody films in its final body count. Normal isn’t the best film of its type, but it’s gleefully entertaining in sections despite its violence and, for that, action film audiences will be grateful.
Rating: 7/10
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