Dir: Ben Wheatley | 2026 USA
Reviewed by Peter Herbert
What could possibly link a feudal field in England with a modern high rise building and a small quiet town in America? They are a number of locations used in films made by British filmmaker Ben Wheatley containing ordinary looking communities. Look more closely though, as Wheatley has a knack for ruffling the surface and far darker depths emerge.
The location of A Field in England (2013) involved a rural world threatened by the effects of a royal execution and the rise of a puritan republic. High Rise (2015) unleashed a very English class riot within sky-high architecture while Normal (2026) moves the dial further afield into a quiet-looking, though as it turns out, not so ordinary contemporary American town. They are amongst Wheatley’s most striking films with Normal remarkable as the British director’s first major American film.
The film opens in Tokyo with a nail-biting underworld execution by the Yakuza and cuts to small-town Americana with no clue as to the connection. This will unravel with the arrival of Sheriff Ulysses who has the task of temporarily enforcing law and order after the grisly death of the town’s sheriff. As he gradually meets townspeople, the mood suggests Ulysses will be more welcome if he adopts the town’s motto that life is easier if you give it all a little less. The trouble is that the town has sold its soul to corporate corruption. As a man with a conscience, the Sheriff’s involvement in incidents including a botched bank robbery will challenge the town’s sense of law and order. More sensitive and troubled by PTSD than first appears he also has to face his own mental stability.
The first half of the film is amongst Wheatley’s best. English eyes that view another country can often find beauty in details overlooked by American storytellers. British filmmakers John Boorman, Alexander Mackendrick, Alex Cox and Alex Garland have viewed America with less than rose tinted visions and Normal provides a similar opportunity for Wheatley. The widescreen camerawork of Armando Salas captures the look of a town with motels and trailer homes in need of a lick of paint and inhabitants appear to struggle to get by.
The director is otherwise closer in spirit and visual style to the American films of British filmmaker Michael Winner as The Stone Killer, The Mechanic and Death Wish films also pit the moral conscience of an antihero up against the sleaze and corruption of failed American dreams. Normal contains an ominous moose looking like a stray out of The Wicker Man as Wheatley ups the carnage of the second half where corruption behind the town’s hidden wealth is revealed. After the relative calm of the first half, more eccentric sides to characters come to the surface along with heavier use of background music. Editing rhythms resemble the visual comic mayhem of John Woo’s action films.
Normal feels like Wheatley could be wooing entry into the mainstream American action movie genre, he is grounded by the handling of actors including Lena Headey, Henry Winkler and the remarkable central performance of Bob Odenkirk as the sherrif. This portrayal of a cheerful looking, if down at heel, middle aged man at the crossroads of life is nuanced and subtle. There are many shades to this performance that hold together Wheatley’s vision of a world turned upside down which Odenkirk navigates with charm, humour and an edginess that keeps the film afloat.
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IN UK and Irish cinemas on Friday 15th May 2026 | Sky Cinema as a Sky Original later in the year.