Norman 2016

      Included in the title are the words, The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer.  Norman Oppenheimer is the President of New York based Oppenheimer Strategies.  He has a word-of-mouth business consulting with American-Israeli businessmen or women and political officials.  He primarily works as a fixer and he does jobs that others don’t want to do.  Really he is a shyster and he’s not very good.  His office is just his cell phone and he wanders the streets.  He promises to make connections and set up meetings.  He name drops but he doesn’t really know the people he’s talking about.  He usually says his deceased wife worked with this person.

     I have to say right away that I didn’t like anything about this film!!  It’s just a bunch of Norman meeting people and trying to con them.  There isn’t anything genuine about anything Norman does or says!!  It’s filmed with a four-act structure but the two middle acts seem to have very little substance??  Really, there isn't much substance to four acts!!  Norman reminds me of a wheeler-dealer car salesman??  He will tell you anything you want to hear to make the sale or the deal!!  Richard Gere does a good job in his role as Norman and he seems to be smaller in stature and thinner?  1 ½* (I really didn’t like this movie)

118 min, Drama directed and written by Joseph Cedar with Richard Gere, Lior Ashkenazi, Michael Sheen, Steve Buscemi, Yehuda Almagor, Neta Riskin, Josh Charles, Dan Stevens, Harris Yulin, Doveal’e Glickman, Tali Sharon, Miranda Bailey.

Note:  Imdb 6.3 out of 10, 88% critic 56% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Roger Ebert 3*, Amazon 3.3* out of 5* with 19 reviews, Metacritic l75 out of 100 with 3 critics 6.3 out of 10 with 18 reviews, EmpireOnline 4* out of 5*, RollingStone 3.5* out of 4*.

Special Note:  This is the first English-speaking film for writer and director Joseph Cedar.  Half of the film was shot in New York City and the other half in Jerusalem, Israel.