‘Normal’ Review: Ben Wheatley Is Back in ‘Free Fire’ Form, Putting Bob Odenkirk at the Center of a Small-Town Standoff

Normal is the name of a Minnesota town where things are anything but. Just 1,890 people live in the tiny Midwestern burg, but there must be at least that many guns to go around. The guy who owns the local bar decorates the place with row upon row of shotguns (for some reason, he prefers to keep them loaded), while the artillery at the police station is stocked with enough ammo to quell a Mexican cartel. The previous sheriff died of suspicious causes, and the guy they brought in to sub till the next election is sort of a softie.

So, nothing is what it seems here, unless you count the fact the temporary sheriff, the seemingly laid-back Ulysses, is played by Bob Odenkirk, star of “Better Call Saul” and the “Nobody” movies. Consider that, and “Normal” is pretty much exactly what you’d expect, just a lot more fun. Odenkirk shares story credit on the movie with “John Wick” co-creator Derek Kolstad, who dispenses with the elegant choreography that made that franchise famous (he’s also kinder to the dog), opting instead for an ultra-violent situation in which everybody’s armed, but hardly anyone is trained.

That’s what makes “Normal” even more of a free-for-all than director Ben Wheatley’s “Free Fire” was. Kolstad’s script may be a recipe for carnage, but it takes a kitchen master like Wheatley to turn that into such a deliciously excessive spread. (And speaking of kitchens, the climactic confrontation takes place between Ulysses, who’s armed with a meat tenderizer, while his opponent wields several knives.) As in Wheatley’s career-launching “Kill List,” the movie lets audiences think it’s going to be one thing for the first half-hour or so, then turns on a dime once the bank is robbed.

There is one hint of the bloodbath to come, as the film opens in Osaka, where a yakuza boss insists that three of his men chop off a digit of their hands in order to prove their loyalty. Two do, but when the third hesitates, it costs the coward his head. Halfway across the globe, in a town that looks like the last place those Japanese gangsters might have business, Ulysses places a call to his wife, describing his new gig, which amounts to babysitting a place where the residents are anything but the polite and chipper folks seen in “Fargo.” (Even so, Kolstad offers a knowing wink by dubbing the late sheriff Gunderson, which is the same name as Frances McDormand’s pregnant police chief in the Coen brothers classic.)

The citizens of Normal cuss and brawl, and when two outsiders dare to rob the local bank, they team up to offer a nuclear-grade response. That might have been cartoonish in another helmer’s hands, yet Wheatley is great with actors, recognizing in Odenkirk a kind of secret weapon: The actor presents as an everyman, but possesses an inner Bruce Willis. In “Normal,” Ulysses doesn’t have the slightest idea what he’s signed up for, though there are clues that he can handle a gun — like that nifty trick, where he racks a gun and catches the bullet as it’s ejected from the chamber. So what’s really going on here? (To avoid the spoiler, skip the next paragraph.)

Instead of simply fading away like so many small American towns, Normal is thriving because it stores and protects nearly all the loot the yakuza has earned in the States. The whole darn community is in on it, which makes this sort of a “Bad Day at Black Rock”/“Red Harvest” situation, where everybody’s corrupt. That means, Ulysses is up against the entire population — which is a lot less than 1,890 when the film is over — while the yakuza take a 10-hour private jet over to settle the score.

From the moment Keith (Brendan Fletcher) and Lori (Reena Jolly) try to knock over the bank, “Normal” switches to action mode and doesn’t let up for nearly 45 minutes. Abnormally enough, Ulysses takes the two robbers’ side because, as he puts it, “they shot at me and you didn’t.” That means it’s three against the world, just as a heavy storm descends, knocking out the power and nearly all communication. The unlikely allies spend a short time holed up in the bank, but eventually make their way down the quaint small-town Main Street to the police station, which gives things a tense, “Attack on Precinct 13”-style vibe.

Instead of acting all tough, Odenkirk channels the reluctant hero, who’d really rather not murder his new neighbors. But he will if he has to, and that’s what distinguishes him from the last guy who had the job — as well as his two deputies, Mike Nelson (Billy MacLellan) and Blaine Anderson (Ryan Allen), the latter of whom is campaigning to take over when Ulysses’ eight weeks are up. When those two go rogue, Ulysses enlists Gunderson’s misunderstood adult child, Alex (Jess McLeod), who’s like the wide-eyed kid to Odenkirk’s Shane, in this movie’s twisted-Western logic.

Because it’s Wheatley directing, the already funny script gets an extra dose of dark humor from its over-the-top kills, which involve more than a couple of eyes getting poked out, heads crushed in or people shot in ways that send bloody bits of them flying all over the nearest bystanders. Wheatley loves a good shock, and the movie is full of them, whether it’s what happens to the mayor (played by Henry Winkler) or that trail of red-splattered snow that leads to a loose moose. Making sense of all this mayhem would be an extraordinary ask for most directors, but in Wheatley’s case, it’s normal.