Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer (2016)

You don't have to be Jewish to love Norman Oppenheimer, a pushy nobody determined to connect people and get somewhere himself. In fact, you don't have to be Jewish to portray him either. The unlikely casting of gentile boomer heartthrob Richard Gere (last blogged for The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel) pays off in a layered performance that you won't forget. Steve Buscemi (most recently on the big screen in The Incredible Burt Wonderstone before starring in 56 episodes of Boardwalk Empire) is hilarious as the harried Rabbi and Michael Sheen (last blogged for Passengers) may have picked up some mannerisms for his part of Norman's nephew (or is he?) from years of dating Sarah Silverman. Both Sheen and Dan Stevens (just seen in Colossal) do well at trading their native English accents for New York ones. I shouldn't quibble about who's Jewish and who isn't--it's called acting, after all.

The key character in Norman's rise and fall is Israeli bureaucrat Micha Eshel, played by Lior Ashkenazi (new to me, he's had dozens of roles in his native Israel). Along the complex way, Harris Yulin and Josh Charles, who play father and son businessmen in five episodes of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, are a business team in this movie (Yulin has 127 credits in his almost 80 year life, including Scarface (1983), Woody Allen's Another Woman (1988), Multiplicity (1996), Training Day (2001), and The Family Fang; and Charles was in Whiskey Tango Foxtrot but is best known for his TV work such as 45 episodes of Sports Night, 10 of Masters of Sex, 4 of Inside Amy Schumer, and 108 of The Good Wife). Hank Azaria (since I wrote about him in Love and Other Drugs he's continued his animation work, bringing his Simpsons episode total to 606, and is currently the dissolute title character in the profane and hilarious IFC series Brockmire, about a baseball play by play announcer) has a nice little cameo near the end.

Director/writer Joseph Cedar was born in New York but moved to Jerusalem at age 5. This is his sixth feature (I haven't seen any) and his first in English, and several of the production companies are Israeli. Yes, the story is complex, and Jack complained later that he found it somewhat hard to follow but, full disclosure, he was sleepy Saturday afternoon when we saw it so he may have missed some of the complexities.

I was wide awake and loved the music by Jun Miyake, who composed, among others, Lilies in the Valley and two more songs which were in Pina. The soundtrack for Norman doesn't seem to be available but here's a very long playlist of Miyake's work. The a cappella quartet's rendition of the haunting Mi Sheberach would be nice to find as well.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics are averaging 80% for this sleeper and its audiences may also have been napping during the exposition, coming in at 70. I recommend it.