Weeell, it was interesting…kind of boring, let’s face it, but sort of interesting too… it could have been a good movie had they known the characters better… I explain, the movie follows Norman everywhere but there is no outside comment, so we see what he does but have nobody to tell us why he does it, because we only hear what he says but have no idea what he’s thinking about. The reason I often feel so much about fictional characters is because I can get to know them; about them I know much more than what I could ever gather about a real person from what I see, because of a fictional character I can know much more, what they think or feel, when they lie and when they suffer and basically what they really are… the main problem with this movie is that we don’t get to fully understand Norman, and the little we see… well, it’s not totally compelling.
We see that Norman is a middle-aged man who lies his way around trying to close deals but failing, trying to get in touch with certain important people but failing.
First mild Spoiler alert, going a little into detail. Be warned.
I had read about this movie that he tries to have recognition in life, aspiring at a higher level in society, that he does little favours to people hoping to make useful connections, and that one day he does a favour to a man that years later will become important and change his life… I expected to see Norman do lots of little favours to people, but I saw none, I didn’t even recognize the one that was to change his life… we see him chase after Bill to talk about some financial matter but Bill sends him away, then he gives up altogether the idea of speaking to the unreachable Israeli’s Prime Minister and goes after a young politician, part of the PM’s staff, Micha Eshel. He follows him for a while then approaches him in front of a shop’s window, and they talk but we don’t hear what they say, so we’ll never know how Norman got his attention because they decided to cover it with music. Anyway, Eshel and Norman sympathize and enter together; Norman’s sweet talk is so out there it’s unbelievable that a politician won’t recognize it for what it is. Eshel gives up on buying a new suit because it is reeeally expensive and his people would not approve (good) so Norman insists on buying him the shoes at least, he insists on buying them for him as a gift. 1200 dollars for a pair of shoes… anyway, he insisted on giving him this gift, so I didn’t realize for a while that this was the favour I had read about! I mean, what favour!?!
This Eshel seems really too naive considering he’s an Israeli politician!
Three years later Eshel is Israeli’s new Prime Minister, and everything changes, and I thought things would get more interesting now… *sigh*
Spoiler Alert Spoiler Alert Spoiler Alert
Being this a new movie I want to warn anyone who might accidentally see this post and read it. I’m not a critic, I just write down what I think about movies, and to do that I go into details, like I’m about to do now; all the details, up to the ending, so go away if you don’t want to know everything.
First part of Norman’s life, we saw Bill sending him away, Eshel stood him up (after the gift-thing had happened already) and therefore he got thrown out of the house of some important business that Norman claimed to know very well in one of his usual lies.
Switch to Eshel new Prime Minister, and Norman’s nephew Phillip convincing him to go meet him. It was one of the best moments, when Norman was near him, next in line to see him, and I could read on his face the doubt and maybe torment, the fear he might be rejected, not recognized and sent away, something like that. Short moment but good. When Eshel hears his name he hugs him as an old friend and supposedly his life changes… I didn’t see much of these changes actually, only a boring long line of faces into bubbles talking boringly, probably signifying that lots of important people now talk to him instead of having someone walk him to the door. Just that. What did he do actually? I don’t know.
Then I saw Norman trying many times to reach Eshel but his secretary and pr chief avoiding him, and even Eshel not returning his call, and his wife telling him that he uses Norman when he wants and then ignores him when he doesn’t need him.. which seemed empty words because I didn’t see Norman doing anything useful for anyone. I saw Norman walking a lot, though :-/
Last part of the movie is Norman with his last ‘mission’: a rabbi asks him to help them raise millions of dollars to help them buy their place but everyone is again dodging him, so eventually Norman lies to the rabbi saying he found an anonymous benefactor ready to give 7 million dollars! When the rabbi express his gratitude and wants to do something in return Norman asks for a favour for his nephew who wants to get married, to a Korean girl!
Right after, we learn from newspapers that Eshel is about to face trouble: he’s about to be charged with corruption, and a mysterious American businessman would be the key witness against him. It was obvious to the viewer who that mystery man might be, but I had seen everything less than an hour before, while for the characters three years had passed so nobody had any idea who that man might be.
Still meddling trying to help, Norman goes to talk to a woman he met on a train (Charlotte Gainsbourg). He wants to help Eshel’s people by finding out something about this whole matter, but is very surprised and shocked when she tells him that it’s him (of course it is!). He had told her that he had met him when he bought him the most expensive pair of shoes in New York and that it had been his best investment ever, or something like that, and of course she tells him that that’s corruption! I mean, in a way it is, and he did it with that very intention, hoping that after that Eshel would go with him to a man’s house.
He would be forced to testify, so it was obvious he had only one way out.
I guess he didn’t want to disappoint anyone, and he did not want to create trouble to Eshel, so he planned another scheme. He asked Bill if Joe would be able to find a way to make lots of money with the information that the mysterious witness would never show up to testify, and we know from the news that they accepted and acted accordingly (something like buying shares, investments that would be good only in the event of Eshel staying in his position, while everybody else was working on the opposite direction, assuming Eshel would be out of the picture soon). Thanks to that I guess Joe becomes the rabbi anonymous benefactor, so the happy rabbi marries a happy Phillip to his Korean girlfriend.
Only Eshel remains, how to save him? By disappearing of course, for real. Suicide. Being terribly allergic, he does it by eating a bag of nuts in the park.
A bizarre scene is when he’s approached by a man doing exactly what he used to do years before, approaching him now the same way he approached Eshel three years back. He offers his ‘services’, and curiously we see him in the park with him in the last scene (playing some music??), so what, did Norman call him asking him to be there?With what excuse, assuming he did not tell him ‘to watch me die’ ? I guess he needed a witness of course, someone that could say that nobody killed him, that nothing suspicious happened, just a man eating nuts and getting sick.
I mean, without witnesses someone might have suspected Eshel..
I don’t know, there are so many assumptions and guesses. The movie wastes so much time on Norman walking here and there and boring conversations, but many important bits are missing. They tell us he had a little inheritance, so at least we know he doesn’t have to earn a living, since he definitely wasn’t. Why did he do it? To feel needed? Had he always done it, or was it a recent thing? Because he didn’t seem to be any good at it, honestly :-/ Was he ever actually married, or was the whole widow-speech a lie too? Did anyone actually ask him to do something for them? Did he ever succeed in any of his schemes? Watching this movie, the way I saw it, it looked like the only plan that actually worked was the one that involved his death :-/
I don’t know, personally the only character I liked was Phillip, but he had little space just like everybody else, since the movie was all about Norman.
Richard Gere was good, but the character was not well defined, so many things about him were never confronted. Less walking, more depth could be a good slogan here.
Michael Sheen as Phillip was good, my fav part, and of course Steve Buscemi was good too as the rabbi, but he’s just one of those actors, you know, that are always the same. I mean it in a good way, they may not be room-fillers like other names, but they never disappoint, they do their work as they know how to do it every time without fail.
The acting is what saves the movie, I’d say. Good actors in it, good performances from everyone.
ITA l’incredibile vita di Norman
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