If you confuse Bob Odenkirk’s action-thriller Normal with Bob Odenkirk’s action-thriller Nobody, you won’t be alone. Both are about an unassuming middle-aged man who shows he has a penchant for dealing with small town criminals in violent ways. Both have nearly the same title. And both, yes, star Bob Odenkirk.
Marketing confusion aside, Normal stands as an unremarkable but harmlessly entertaining echo of the Nobody franchise, a smaller scale actionier that isn’t as polished or amusing but still packs a punch here and there.
Odenkirk is fine in the starring role, even if he’s playing a variation of himself that we’ve seen before. He’s likable, he’s got awkward charisma, and he knows how to fire a rocket launcher—there isn’t much more to him than that.
Where Normal thrives is in the action, which isn’t sensational but just sharp enough to elicit attention. Director Ben Wheatley delivers a few fun sequences that flirt with devilish glee. People die. Bodies explode. Those who enjoy clever deaths will get their licks, as mild as those licks may be.
The plot, of course, simple exists to put its chain of events into motion, but it serves its purpose. At 90 minutes, Normal is just the right length—it’s lean but not too mean, never taking itself too seriously as it progresses along.
There’s a charm to Normal that is hard to place. It’s an easy watch, an action movie that feels neither generic nor important. It’s a movie you won’t mind watching, but won’t miss if you never see it. It is, in all fashions of the word… normal.
Review by Erik Samdahl. Erik is a marketing and technology executive by day, avid movie lover by night. He is a member of the Seattle Film Critics Society.