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Norman

Original title: Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer
  • 20162016
  • RR
  • 1h 58m
IMDb RATING
6.1/10
6.1K
YOUR RATING
  • Cast & crew
  • User reviews
  • Trivia
  • IMDbPro
Richard Gere in Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer (2016)
Norman Oppenheimer is a small time operator who befriends a young politician at a low point in his life. Three years later, when the politician becomes an influential world leader, Norman's life dramatically changes for better and worse.
Play trailer1:23
8 Videos
20 Photos
  • Drama
  • Thriller
Norman Oppenheimer is a small time operator who befriends a young politician at a low point in his life. Three years later, when the politician becomes an influential world leader, Norman's ... Read allNorman Oppenheimer is a small time operator who befriends a young politician at a low point in his life. Three years later, when the politician becomes an influential world leader, Norman's life dramatically changes for better and worse.Norman Oppenheimer is a small time operator who befriends a young politician at a low point in his life. Three years later, when the politician becomes an influential world leader, Norman's life dramatically changes for better and worse.
IMDb RATING
6.1/10
6.1K
YOUR RATING
  • Director
    • Joseph Cedar
  • Writer
    • Joseph Cedar
  • Stars
    • Richard Gere
    • Lior Ashkenazi
    • Michael Sheen
Top credits
  • Director
    • Joseph Cedar
  • Writer
    • Joseph Cedar
  • Stars
    • Richard Gere
    • Lior Ashkenazi
    • Michael Sheen
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 46User reviews
    • 97Critic reviews
    • 75Metascore
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 1 win & 1 nomination

    Videos8

    Teaser Trailer
    Trailer 1:23
    Teaser Trailer
    Official Theatrical Trailer
    Trailer 2:05
    Official Theatrical Trailer
    English Subtitles
    Clip 2:17
    English Subtitles
    English Subtitles
    Clip 1:37
    English Subtitles
    English Subtitles
    Clip 1:26
    English Subtitles
    English Subtitles
    Clip 1:05
    English Subtitles
    English Subtitles
    Clip 1:00
    English Subtitles
    Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer
    Clip 1:46
    Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer

    Photos20

    Lior Ashkenazi in Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer (2016)
    Richard Gere in Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer (2016)
    Richard Gere and Michael Sheen in Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer (2016)
    Steve Buscemi, Harris Yulin, and Dan Stevens in Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer (2016)
    Richard Gere in Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer (2016)
    Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer (2016)
    Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer (2016)
    Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer (2016)
    Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer (2016)
    Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer (2016)
    Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer (2016)
    Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer (2016)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Richard Gere
    Richard Gere
    • Norman Oppenheimeras Norman Oppenheimer
    Lior Ashkenazi
    Lior Ashkenazi
    • Micha Eshelas Micha Eshel
    Michael Sheen
    Michael Sheen
    • Phillip Cohenas Phillip Cohen
    Steve Buscemi
    Steve Buscemi
    • Rabbi Blumenthalas Rabbi Blumenthal
    Yehuda Almagor
    • Dubyas Duby
    Neta Riskin
    Neta Riskin
    • Hannaas Hanna
    Josh Charles
    Josh Charles
    • Arthur Taubas Arthur Taub
    Dan Stevens
    Dan Stevens
    • Bill Kavishas Bill Kavish
    Harris Yulin
    Harris Yulin
    • Jo Wilfas Jo Wilf
    Doval'e Glickman
    Doval'e Glickman
    • Ron Maoras Ron Maor
    • (as Dov Glickman)
    Tali Sharon
    Tali Sharon
    • Naomi Eshelas Naomi Eshel
    Charlotte Gainsbourg
    Charlotte Gainsbourg
    • Alexandra (Alex) Greenas Alexandra (Alex) Green
    Isaach De Bankolé
    Isaach De Bankolé
    • Jacquesas Jacques
    • (as Isaach De Bankole)
    Miranda Bailey
    Miranda Bailey
    • Taub's Assistantas Taub's Assistant
    D.C. Anderson
    D.C. Anderson
    • Congressman Bob Easterlyas Congressman Bob Easterly
    Andrea Cirie
    Andrea Cirie
    • BRBC Conference Moderatoras BRBC Conference Moderator
    Scott Shepherd
    Scott Shepherd
    • Bruce Schwartzas Bruce Schwartz
    Bern Cohen
    Bern Cohen
    • Male Board Member 1as Male Board Member 1
    • Director
      • Joseph Cedar
    • Writer
      • Joseph Cedar
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
    • All cast & crew

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Half of the film was shot in New York City and half of it in Jerusalem, Israel. The original poster for the movie showed the two main actors, Richard Gere and Lior Ashkenazi, standing back to back, with Gere in New York City and Ashkenazi in Jerusalem.
    • Quotes

      Norman Oppenheimer: There are two kinds of moguls: First kind is like a big ocean liner ship. Makes a lot of waves, a lot of noise, everybody sees it coming from miles away. Like Jo Wilf. I think your boss, Minister Maor, is actually... in his close circle of friends. of course. And then there is Arthur. Well, Arthur is more like a nuclear submarine. he's quiet, he's fast, he's young. Extremely sophisticated.

    • Connections
      References Exodus (1960)
    • Soundtracks
      Mi Sheberach
      Traditional

      Arranged by Raymond Goldstein

    User reviews46

    Review
    Top review
    Best post-matinée idol role & performance by Richard Gere
    When I see the term "The Fixer" I recall Alan Bates in the now-forgotten Frankenheimer film from the Bernard Malamud novel of that name. A more definitive portrait is limned by Richard Gere as an archetypal (or stereotypical) Jewish character in Joe Cedar's "Norman", a performance that is near-perfect and marks the full transition of Gere from his pretty-boy stardom of decades ago to great character actor.

    Casting gentiles in most of the major Jewish roles in this film should not be controversial, as certainly all recent Mafia epics have cast Brits, Irish and Australian actors in the Italian parts for the obvious reason that Italian actors, even De Niro, are tired of the ethnic gangster stereotype unless it's a comedy or spoof. Gere creates a memorable and unique character that avoids the obvious clichés.

    Just as in "Pretty Woman" he so ably played second-fiddle to his co-star Julia Roberts (in the role that made her a star) here Gere is actually overshadowed in the charisma department by his amazing Israeli co-star Lior Ashkenazi as Eshel, a minor Israeli politician befriended (for purely self-serving reasons) by Gere as Norman Oppenheinmer, Eshel later becoming his country's powerful prime minister.

    Norman is a finagler (I couldn't place the proper Yiddish word to describe him), with a compulsion to inveigle his way into people's good graces usually in the manner of a "cold call" handled in person, in order to make them beholden to him for future payoff. It's analogous to the premise behind Puzo's "The Godfather", in which Don Corleone does favors that ultimately will be paid back when the time is propitious, and is best described in the film's wonderful hand-drawn charts which Kevin Bacon-like link people together in complicated diagrams. Besides its obvious content, the film works on a different level to show the negative side of our era's current craze for "networking", a practice that has been enshrined as the cure-all for unemployment (or underemployment) at a certain level of society but which in this case involves extreme, insidious manipulation.

    Starting with buying the visiting Eshel an expensive pair of shoes as the Israeli visits New York City on government business (Isaach De Bankole as the shoe salesman is the first of numerous terrific small- role performances by instantly recognizable actors who usually have leading parts in movies), Norman compulsively fabricates far-fetched stories of his linkage to everybody while creating tenuous links in order to concoct complicated schemes, which he calls "Strategies" on his business card.

    He's a mysterious figure, always clad in his camel's hair overcoat and seemingly homeless as we never see him except in public places, usually on the phone via earphones pestering folks. On the surface he is a bore -the type one meets at a cocktail party or in the next seat on a plane and makes one wish to escape from his barrage of intrusive blather.

    But writer-director Cedar not only humanizes Norman but by the end of the film makes us see the good that results from his weird projects, even though Norman himself faces a tragic fate. A stumbling block for me to get into the picture was Cedar's rather forced and overly fanciful use of tropes from the school of "Magical Realism", often showing the characters, even as far away as one in NYC and the other in Israel, staged on the same set as if together, ultimately making much of the film seem like merely a fever dream hallucination in Norman's brain rather than actually occurring events.

    That "is it real?" aspect is already in the script by way of the constant prevarication and self-delusional assertions Norman makes, always exaggerating his own importance. He's not a liar per se, but as Kellyanne Conway has so vividly put it, a believer in alternate facts. When called on it, he tries to weasel his way out of a corner, but much of the film's effective black humor stems from the fact that the audience is privy to both sides of the story.

    Fate is a crutch that Cedar uses to keep the pot boiling but makes most of the movie's twists and turns too far-fetched to be believable. I would have much preferred an organic, unpredictable story line rather than the too-tight, very contrived approach, but that is the auteur's prerogative. These characters, especially Norman, have no degrees of freedom, while good (if conventional) writing is based on giving protagonists enough degrees of freedom to make choices and thereby create viable drama based on the consequences of their specific choices.

    In addition to Gere's thoughtful and always in character bravura performance and Ashkenazi's empathetic brilliance (he was great in an earlier Israeli film called "Footnote" that deserves to be more widely known), the spot roles so beautifully enacted include Charlotte Gainsbourg popping up and underplaying in chilling fashion as an Israeli prosecutor/investigator crucial to the story's payoff; Steve Buscemi cast against type as a duped Rabbi, who later shows the explosiveness fans have come to expect from the "Boardwalk Empire" star; Michael Sheeen, perfect as Norman's hapless and put-upon nephew; Harris Yulin as a tough NY power broker; and especially Hank Azaria, briefly astounding as Norman's unlikely doppelganger. This type of self-effacing ensemble is what the Screen Actor's Guild created its best "Cast in a Motion Picture" award to honor.
    helpful•33
    17
    • lor_
    • Apr 14, 2017

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • March 9, 2017 (Israel)
    • Countries of origin
      • Israel
      • United States
    • Official sites
      • Official site
      • Official site (Japan)
    • Languages
      • English
      • Hebrew
    • Also known as
      • Oppenheimer Strategies
    • Filming locations
      • New York, USA
    • Production companies
      • Blackbird
      • Cold Iron Pictures
      • Movie Plus productions
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $3,814,868
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $99,211
      • Apr 16, 2017
    • Gross worldwide
      • $6,217,567
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 58 minutes
    • Color
      • Color

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