Norman: The Moderate Rise And Tragic Fall Of A New York Fixer Fixes Up Some Well-Written Money-Motivated Mayhem

The world of politics is tricky to navigate for sure. For instance, recent American political developments seem to pain a gloomy picture in terms of the kind of leaders many people in our country want, with racist sexual predator reality TV show hosts with no political experience winning the highest seat of power in the country over a woman with decades of political experience while a man who assaults reporters is able to win a seat in Congress. Yes, the world of politics is not for the faint of heart and it's one that Nathaniel Oppenheimer, the titular character of Norman: The Moderate Rise And Tragic Fall Of A New York Fixer, finds himself very much in the middle of.

Who exactly is Nathaniel Oppenheimer (Richard Gere)? Oh don't you worry about that, he's only interested in talking all about you and what you want. This is a guy whose an opportunist, a fellow whose looking to score big connections in high places even if that means harassing high-profile people like Bill Kavish (Dan Stevens) whilst they're jogging. On a routine day, he corners Micha Eschel (Lior Ashkenazi), a politician on the rise in Israel, in a high-end mens clothing store and the two hit it off quite quickly with their prosperous meeting concluding with Norman buying Micha a very expensive pair of shoes. Clearly, Norman has no financial objections when it comes to securing friends in high places.

The story itself (which is split into four individual segments) from there shows Micha obtaining the position of Prime Minister of Israel. His friendship with Norman is more solidified than ever and Norman attempts to use the potential power and influence he carries by being chummy with the Prime Minister of Israel by trying to finally get in touch with individuals like Bill Kavish and helping save a cash-strapped synagogue his buddy, Rabbi Blumenthal (Steve Buscemi) runs. Of course, Norman has far less power than he thinks, but hey, he's the "Fake it till you make it" kind of guy, don'tcha know.

Norman himself is an interesting character since Joseph Cedar's screenplay refuses to position himself as inherently a good or bad character. He is trying to help other people like Rabbi Blumenthal or Micha Eschel, the problem is he keeps doing so in duplicitous ways that only create further problems. He's a liar with a heart of imitation gold, if you will. He's like the most optimistic individual ever, a guy whose never without his earbuds plugged into his ears and iPhone and utterly convinced his charm and connections will help him clear all hurdles in his path. Even better, the script refuses to give Norman a ham-fisted drastic backstory to inform his actions, he just is who he is, a wine 'em and dine 'em guy convinced the next client he talks to on the phone will be the one that rockets him to the top.

Richard Gere plays this part quite well, offering a warm personality to Norman that makes it easy to see why Micha and Rabbi Blumenthal would find him to be an affable and charming chap, though Gere also does a great job portraying the characters obvious frustrations and cockiness in private that show Norman to be more flawed than he would likely care to admit. Cedar's script gives Gere plenty of strong dialogue to work with, though it must be said that the screenplay does have its slower scenes that do hurt the pacing of the entire movie, though, on a more positive note regarding story structure, the second half of the feature is remarkably entertaining in the way it pays off  and builds off of previously established elements in Norman's hair-brained schemes.

I also really like the way Joseph Cedar, as a director, decided to visually depict the majority of the phone calls the lead characters engages in. Since Norman is constantly on the phone talking to his various clients, just resorting to conventional visual techniques to depict people chatting on the phone (which work fine in small doses) could have gotten repetitive real quickly. Here though, the calls are depcited in these wide shots that have Norman on one side of the screen and the person on the other end of the line on the other end of the screen while the two differing environments the characters inhabit aren't divided by a split screen, rather, the two locations meet in the middle and lead into each other, making it look like Norman could just walk over a few steps and be right in front of whoever he's talking to. 

It's a really clever way to visually spice up the barrage of phone conversations Norman engages in and it's one of the key reasons why Norman: The Moderate Rise And Tragic Fall Of A New York Fixer ends up being a thoughtful and cleverly made movie. It's got some slower spots that could have been trimmed and one or two supporting characters (like Norman's cousin for instance) that could have used more screentime, but overall, it's a delightful New York set farce that nicely channels the style of madcap mayhem motion pictures from The Coen Brothers like Burn After Reading and Fargo. Those are two phenomenal movies and good ones to emulate in tone and Norman: The Moderate Rise And Tragic Fall Of A New York Fixer definitely seems akin to such films while bringing plenty of its own personality and wit to the table.