Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer is a Terrific Study on Pathological Liars
Acknowledging the generosity of Anonymous.
Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer is a tragic, yet incredibly real story of Norman Oppenheimer (Richard Gere) who befriends the would-be Prime Minister of Israel, Micha Eshel (Lior Ashkenazi), while being a “consultant”. But Norman isn’t a consultant — he’s a hustler who makes up stories and has a fake personality to develop connections — consistantly lies all the time and keeps stalking its “clients” [if you will] for attention. No one knows where he lives, no one knows about his personal life, no one knows really anything about him. What does he do? Who is he? Who cares?!?
The most compelling aspect of the movie is Norman himself and his sociopathic tendencies — Norman is brilliantly played by Richard Gere who is able to do, in the 2/3 of the film, fantastic comedy and in the last act of the film, incredibly gripping drama in which you can’t help but feel sorry for the guy. Norman is an incredible sociopath; he lies constantly about his personal life (“I know Arthur Taub, my wife used to babysit him!”, even though he might’ve never had a wife) and his connection to the Prime Minister of Israel and uses it to make up stories. Richard Gere delivers one of the best performances of his career by portraying a narcissicstic sociopath. The only reason why Norman is as good as it is is solely because of Richard Gere and director Joseph Cedar’s terrific script.
The most disturbing aspect of Norman is how he lies constantly just to make so-called “connections”. One dreamy sequence involves him meeting Micha Eshel as he is now Prime Minister, in which he introduces Norman to every single person he knows. The “lie” has crossed the point of no return — as Norman is now happy to have all the contacts in the world. Norman then proceeds to “help” a Jewish Synagogue by saying an “Anonymous” donor will give 7 million dollars with an incredible scheme. No one really knows who or what is this “Anonymous” donor, it seems as though Norman likes to make up everything just for everyone to be friends with him. Honestly, his talking-techniques as he stalks people, such as Bill Kavish (Dan Stevens) is inherently tragic; no one seems to properly like him as they all know he’s full of shit, yet everyone loves his weird personality, until he gets in deep, deep trouble.
On a train on the way back to a convention, Norman meets Alex Green (Charlotte Gainsbourg) who was also at the convention — the scene that follows is, in my opinion, the most disturbing one. He talks, and talks, and talks to her (with nothing but lies after lies while he tries, three times, to introduce her to people) until they arrive at Penn Station. He sits down at the waiting area, until Alex calls him. He says: “I’m getting into a cab, where are you!”. She replies that she’s inside. You can hear Norman shaking terribly and breathing heavily as he tries to see where she is. This is the point of no return for Norman, completely balls deep into his lies that he feels the necessity to lie all the time instead of saying “I’m still inside!” just to impress everyone. Norman actually reminded me of Christopher M. Day — “filmmaker” extraordinaire, who acts exactly like Norman; lies and nothing but lies to impress everyone, stalks people on the internet until they become “friends” and make you feel bad when you decide “hey, stop bothering me”. Norman bothers everyone; spam-calls Micha every single day, and might even cause a War between other countries as he, the “Unnamed Businessman” is the central figure of an investigation of the Prime Minister.
What Norman has been doing, connecting with people on behalf of Prime Minister Eshel is criminal and illegal — something he only realizes when he meets Srul Katz (Hank Azaria) who does the exact same thing as him — a pathological liar and stalker who will make up anything as a “consultant” just to impress NORMAN, because Srul knows he has connections with the Prime Minister. The expression on Norman’s face is incredible and conveys everything — he understands exactly what he has done as a so-called “consultant”. He has but diminshed the international reputation of the Prime Minister, even though Micha Eshel considers him as a “true friend”. The final 5 minutes of the film is incredibly emotional, as Norman reminisces what he has done for the Community of New York and how everything has worked out, in the end, as he plans to kill himself by eating a bag of nuts (he is extremely allergic to them). It’s a “tragic fall” to a rather “moderate rise” and this is why Norman is a film that demands to be experienced; it’s not a movie in which you root for the hero — but you emotionally feel for the guy as he’s just trying to make friends and/or “connections” in the world of Israeli politics. And it worked for a while, until he becomes the central figure of an Investigation and decides not to testify. It’s got a great supporting cast and a terrific screenplay — that studies sociopathic behavior in the most carefree way possible, led by a terrific performance from Richard Gere who emodies the entire film. Experience it for yourself.
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