DUBAI: Bob Odenkirk continues his transformation into an everyman action hero in this stylish action comedy from English filmmaker Ben Wheatley (“Kill List,” “Rebecca”). Odenkirk plays Ulysses, a lawman haunted by a shooting incident that left him mentally shattered and broke up his marriage. Now, he’s landed a job as interim sheriff in the small — but surprisingly prosperous — town of Normal, Minnesota, after the last sheriff died of hypothermia in a fishing-related mishap.
At first, it seems that Ulysses will have a relatively quiet stint until the next sheriff is elected. The locals all give him a warm welcome, and his new colleagues are eager for him to fit in. But when a robbery at the local bank goes wrong, Ulysses quickly discovers that Normal’s warmth is just a façade covering up a dark secret — one that everyone in town seems to be in on.
Wheatley owes a considerable debt to “Fargo” — both the Coen brothers' 1996 film and its TV spinoff — here, and not just for the Minnesota setting. There’s a similar offbeat, homely vibe to both the cops and the townsfolk in general, and a similar stumbling from relative calm to chaos in the blink of an eye. “Normal,” though, lacks the subtle layers of peak “Fargo,” focusing instead on adrenaline-fuelled action.
