Norman **½ (2016, Richard Gere, Lior Ashkenazi, Michael Sheen, Charlotte Gainsbourg) – Movie Review

Richard Gere does a good piece of star character acting as small-time operator New York fixer Norman Oppenheimer, who makes friend with a young Israeli politician Micha Eshel (Lior Ashkenazi), who becomes an influential world leader three years later.

Writer-director Joseph Cedar’s 2016 real-life drama thriller starts off a bit hard going as you try to fathom out what the heck’s going on, and who everybody is, and what they are  up to. Then it gets a bit boring and sleep inducing in mid section. But it finally pays off reasonably well toward the end of its long-seeming two-hour running time, building to a satisfactory conclusion.

Ashkenazi is also very good, and so is Charlotte Gainsbourg as Alex Green, a woman Norman tries to get a fix on to, but soon gets the better of him. Gainsbourg’s scenes with Gere are commendably tense. Steve Buscemi does liven things up as Rabbi Blumenthal, though the performance doesn’t feel too truthful. Michael Sheen and Dan Stevens seems miscast and wasted as Philip Cohen and Bill Kavish, and Hank Azaria and Harris Yulin are just wasted as Srul Katz and Jo Wilf.

As it is a serious, intelligent piece of work, it is reasonable, but you feel you would like to like it more. However, it never plays like an engrossing fixer thriller, which you might hope for, more a worthy TV movie-style true-life drama. Joseph Cedar’s talky screenplay never sizzles, just plods earnestly along.

Despite all the screen time he gets and Cedar’s obvious affection for him, Norman remains an unexplained enigma and actually quite annoying. He’s a stalker, an intruder and a manipulating twister/ hustler. What really is there to like? And exactly how did he become who he is? Whatever there is to know, this movie isn’t going to tell us.

And what should be a riveting story just turns into a vaguely interested extended anecdote. It is funny to see Gere looking ancient and doddery like this. But, of course, he is only acting. And acting well, too. It’s a bit of a turn, but it’s a grandstanding one. Yes, he does shine, and he should do more of this kind of work.

Its full original title is Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer. You can just see that on the marquee, can’t you?

© Derek Winnert 2017 Movie Review

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