Did Norman Raise Money For The Synagogue In Joe Cedar's 'norman'?

How you feel nearly Norman the grapheme will determine how you feel about "Norman" the pic.He'southward a complicated man, and not necessarily a likable one. A self-styled "consultant," he is whoever he needs to be at whatsoever particular moment, depending on the situation he's trying to insinuate himself into or the person he's trying to manipulate. Is he a shameless hustler? Or is he just an overbearing nevertheless well-intentioned mensch?

And all the same, in Richard Gere'south deft, veteran hands, Norman Oppenheimer is consistently, completely fascinating. You may not be able to root for him, but you lot can't help only experience for him. "Norman"—the total championship of which is "Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer"—similarly remains gripping every bit information technology evolves from funny to sad to suspenseful. Author/director Joseph Cedar has created a rich graphic symbol within a brilliant sense of place. All nosotros can do is watch and squirm.

With his ever-present overcoat, hat and ear buds, Norman is always walking and talking, e'er working it. He's warm and friendly to everyone he meets, fancying himself as a magnanimous, well-connected power banker who's eager to introduce people to each other for their mutual benefit. Delight, but let him do this ane favor for you—it would be his honor. But it's clear that no ane actually knows Norman, and fifty-fifty though Gere is on screen for nearly the entirety of the moving picture, we realize past the end that nosotros don't really know Norman, either. And that'due south intentional; Cedar has made him a tantalizing mystery.

What Norman is after, though, becomes achingly articulate: not the money that closing a big deal would bring, but rather the prestige, something that's more amorphous and harder to acquire. He finally achieves some semblance of the access and respect he long has sought when he befriends an Israeli diplomat named Micha Eshel (an excellent Lior Ashkenazi, who also co-starred in Cedar's 2011 movie "Footnote"), who'south visiting New York at a vulnerable time in his political career. A scene in which Norman follows Eshel into the Manhattan Lanvin store and helps him try on expensive suits and shoes plays like an exquisitely tense, fragile trip the light fantastic toe.

Three years later , when Eshel becomes Israel's prime government minister, he remembers his eager-to-please pal and welcomes Norman into this inner circumvolve—to the frustration of the seasoned political aides who already occupy spots at that place. But as Norman begins making promises he can't go on to friends throughout New York's Jewish customs and getting in deeper over his head, his exaggerations and outright lies come dorsum to haunt him. Not only does he find it increasingly hard to maintain his well-honed persona, he also finds that being near the center of power isn't equally satisfying as he'd always imagined.

It's a classic case of being careful of what you wish for. But Gere brings such nuance to Norman's various shadings, he constantly keeps u.s.a. on edge. His terminal fate feels a fleck anticlimactic, particularly given the elaborate, expertly paced build-up that preceded it. But Gere keeps us guessing until the end, with the ultimate question lingering: Does Norman actually believe his own spin? It could become either way. Gere is expertly cast, finding a different key to his typically charismatic screen persona—one that's larger than life, but with a jittery, buzzing undercurrent.

The supporting cast is strong, too, especially Michael Sheen as Norman'south nephew and much-needed (if non heeded) phonation of reason and Steve Buscemi as Norman'south sympathetic rabbi. Charlotte Gainsbourg brings a quietly unsettling presence as an inquisitive government worker Norman schmoozes upwardly on a train. And Josh Charles is just withering in one scene as an affluent, influential New Yorker whose dinner party Norman makes the mistake of crashing.

You may non like Norman—and you may non want to invite him to your own dinner party—but you'd be foolish to dismiss him outright.