Gere shines in a wryly delightful ‘Norman’
A foot in the door is all Norman Oppenheimer wants, or needs. But give him an inch ...
Brilliantly portrayed by Richard Gere, our title character is a smalltime operator who’s always on the phone plugged into his ear, forever cajoling, importuning, pestering somebody on the other end — the kinda guy if you met at a party or sat next to on a plane, you’d kill to get away from.
Norman doggedly pursues people in order to do favors for them now — and ask favors in return later. His blathering always includes some invented linkage to some important person in some complex scheme (termed “Oppenheimer Strategies” on his business card). He’s a truly mysterious figure, always seen outdoors, bundled up in overcoat and muffler. Might he possibly even be homeless? In any case, he’s adept at crashing parties and ingratiating himself — for a while.
At the moment, Norman’s sights are set on befriending Micha Eshel (Lior Ashkenazi), a minor Israeli politician — deputy minister of labor, if you must know — visiting New York at a low point in his political career. In a moment of extravagant serendipity, Norman buys Eshel a ridiculously expensive pair of shoes.
Turns out to be a very good investment. Three years later, Eshel will become much more important, and so will Norman.
The term “fixer” conjures the fine old Frankenheimer film, starring Alan Bates, based on the eponymous Bernard Malamud novel. Norman is a latter-day finagler (a macher, in Yiddish) who buys or inveigles his way into your good graces to make you beholden — a kind of Don Corleone, without the clout.
But director-writer Joseph Cedar, in his first English-speaking feature film, humanizes him, makes us empathize with the good in him and some of his schemes. Who could object to raising money for synagogue repairs? There’s confusion and ambiguity in the script early on, but it’s eventually
clarified with the aid of some Magic Realism: inventive cinematography that juxtaposes two characters (or sets of characters) in different places — usually New York and Israel — sharing the same frame on two halves of one set, existentially spliced together. It’s both humorous and a bit hallucinatory, not unlike Norman’s delusional mind, as he constantly prevaricates and exaggerates his own importance. He’s not a liar per se. He’s just a believer in Kellyanne Conway’s “alternative facts,” weaseling his way into and out of trouble.
I never much adored Mr. Gere in his youthful heyday, but his thoughtful, bravura performance here takes him once and for all from (old) leading-man stardom to (new) character-role excellence. The seriocomic contortions of the film and of his portrayal will take him to increasing stature.
Israeli co- star Ashkenazi’s conflicted and empathetic Micha is likewise excellent, and so is Charlotte Gainsbourg as the Israeli prosecutor who leads to Norman’s demise. Michael Sheen is perfectly smarmy as Norman’s scheming nephew, while Hank Azaria makes for a fine, ironic Norman-in-waiting. But best of all, in support, is fabulous Steve Buscemi as the duped rabbi, happily eating gefilte fish on Ritz crackers until he eventually explodes — as only he can — to the joy of his fans.
“Norman” is a delightfully wry black dramedy, enhanced by its sophisticated political intrigue and the seamier side of our era’s current obsession with “networking.” Director Cedar has spoken, whimsically, of the publicists’ contortions to promote the film by eliminating the subtitle and trying to make it “not so Jewish.” Thankfully, to no avail.
As my late great father used to say: “Jews are just like everybody else, only more so.”
(In English and Hebrew, with subtitles.)