(Richard Gere)
The thriller Norman is a
new film by Academy Award® nominated director Joseph Cedar.
Norman Oppenheimer (Richard Gere) lives a lonely life in the
margins of New York City power and money, a would-be operator dreaming up
financial schemes that never come to fruition. As he has nothing real to offer,
he strives to be everyone’s friend, but his incessant networking leads him
nowhere.
Always on the lookout for someone willing to pay attention
to him, Norman sets his sights on Micha Eshel (Lior Ashkenazi), a charismatic
Israeli politician alone in New York at a low point in his career. Sensing
Eshel’s vulnerability, Norman reaches out with a gift of a very expensive pair
of shoes, a gesture that deeply touches Eshel. When Eshel becomes Prime
Minister three years later, he remembers.
With his very real connection to the leader of a major
nation, Norman is awash in the respect he has always craved. Flush with his
newfound feeling of success, Norman attempts to use Eshel’s name to leverage
his biggest deal ever: a series of quid pro quo transactions linking the Prime
Minister to Norman’s nephew (Michael Sheen), a rabbi (Steve Buscemi), a mogul
(Harris Yulin), his assistant (Dan Stevens), and a treasury official from the
Ivory Coast.
Norman’s kaleidoscopic plans soon go awry, creating the
potential for an international catastrophe he must struggle to prevent.