Don’t underestimate understated. That is today’s lesson. Bob Odenkirk is a genuine, bonafide, hip, new-fangled movie star these days. And he’s an action movie star at that. Bob Odenkirk has achieved this status despite being 63 and looking every year of it. Oh, and he never was a movie star before. This is just something that happened because we liked his part in “Breaking Bad” … where he also wasn’t the star.
Weird.
I don’t want to go on too much further with this. Suffice to say, Bob has a dadbod everyman feel to him, and yet there’s a quiet dignity there, along with the fact that this is the 3rd straight movie in which he’s played a 60-year-old badass, and Nobody is stopping him, ya dig? Today, he’s a roaming sheriff who finds the wrong small town.
Ulysses (yes, “Ulysses.” Break out your Homer, people) Richardson has combat personal strife by constantly finding new temporary homes. He is an acting sheriff when you need one. He is mild-mannered and non-confrontational. He has chosen this life on purpose. He makes a pretty good sheriff, FWIW. His first encounter with a law breaker ends with a ticket under a windshield wiper. Instead of a fine, however, the ticket reads, “park better.” It’s winter in Minnesota; we can understand risking a violation to save a few steps, no?
The philosophy being employed here is “life is a lot easier when you care a little less,” which is, sadly, true, but a pure luxury for most of us living through the Trump era. I digress.
Life seems quiet in Normal, Minnesota, population: a handful. This changes when a bank robbery happens. Summoned to the scene with every last deputy in town, temp Sheriff Ulysses decides to confront the robbers. He knows them. He met them earlier that morning. He’s got a good idea they just want money.
This is all good-and-fine -Ulysses even seems to have a bit of a death wish anyway- until he gets shot. Except he doesn’t get shot by
the bank robbers; he got shot by his deputy. And it appears more deputy gunfire is aimed his way. What’s going on here? And what does it have to do with the non-sequitur Yakuza pinky-slicing ritual at the start of the film? I guess we shall find out.
I think Bob Odenkirk has a charm in exactly that he doesn’t have looks or charm or youth or obvious charisma on his side. He’s a guy we truly can relate to. Perhaps he’s the ideal Jimmy Stewart for Boomers, huh? Hard to say. What I can say is this is third picture in a row in which Bob Odenkirk has demonstrated a hidden skill set. Bob’s metaphorical personal store has empty display windows, yet his characters have hidden depths. I dunno how long this formula will work … but it seems to be doing ok for at least one more film. Odenkirk co-wrote his own quasi-heroism here; he clearly knows how he’s viewed as a person. Hollywood was a bizarre way of both honoring repetition and shaming it; do we get a Nobody 3 and Normal 2 … or do we stop here and invent some new crisis for a sixtysomething weapons expert to bumble into? There likely will be more of this. I’m good with that.
There once was a sheriff Ulysses
Whose life had less hits and more missies
But he found a small down
Who thought he was a clown
Turns out Normal rejects all the sissies
Rated R, 91 Minutes
Director: Ben Wheatley
Writer: Derek Kolstad, Bob Odenkirk
Genre: Small town blues
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Your grandfather, even if he’s dead
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: The Yakuza
