Acting veteran finds a new gear in Norman
Norman (M, 118 mins), directed by Joseph Cedar, ★★★★
Richard Gere is at his controlled and charismatic best in this surprisingly effective low-budget character drama.
He plays Norman Oppenheimer – founder and CEO of the New York-based Oppenheimer Strategies.
Norman is a man who likes to make connections and link people up with one another. Operating within New York’s Jewish community, he uses considerable chutzpah, cunning and cold calling to try to create deals where ‘‘everybody wins’’.
His latest target is Israeli deputy minister of trade and labour Micha Eshel (Lior Ashkenazi).
Convinced that he can broker a deal between the Israeli government and local businessman Arthur Taub (Josh Charles), Norman tries to persuade Eshel to accompany him to a dinner at Taub’s house.
To sweeten the deal, he buys the minister the pair of $1200 shoes he appears to covet. Although disappointed when he doesn’t show, Norman’s efforts eventually pay off when three years later Eshel is named Prime Minister. He hasn’t forgotten his generous friend and makes him his ‘‘unofficial’’ New York ambassador.
But just as Norman starts work on using his new credentials, he discovers just how cruel both politics and the press can be.
Part Walter Mitty, part Willy Loman, part Chauncey Gardiner, Norman offers one-time big office drawcard Gere a complex and compelling character to lose himself in, which he does to great effect.
Like Arbitrage‘s Robert Miller and Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel’s Guy Chambers, Norman is someone who is not what he first seems, something that the now 67-year-old actor appears to revel in and excel at. He’s ably supported by the truly terrific supporting cast that also includes Hank Azaria, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Dan Stevens and Michael Sheen.
With its New York setting, surreal moments and lengthy subtitle (The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer), writer-director Joseph Cedar’s (who made the excellent 2011 Israeli drama Footnote) film also reminds one of the Michael Keaton Oscar-winning drama Birdman.
That feeling is greatly assisted by moments that can only be described as cinematic, as Cedar makes effective use of split screens, long takes and sound to depict the differences between Norman’s ‘‘fantasies’’ and Gotham’s harsh realities.
The film is also a love letter to the Big Apple, as our ‘‘hero’’ conducts his business in the streets and shops of Manhattan.
In the end, Cedar’s tale is proof of Norman’s belief that ‘‘good things come in surprising ways’’. – James Croot