Normal life

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Movie
German title Normal Life
Cross-title: Normal Life - Deadly Illusion
Original title Normal life
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1996
length 98 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director John McNaughton
script Peg Haller,
Bob Schneider
production Richard Maynard
music Robert McNaughton,
Ken Hale
camera Jean de Segonzac
cut Elena Maganini
occupation

Normal Life (Cross-reference: Normal Life) is an American drama film directed by John McNaughton from 1996 . The plot follows real events from the robber couple Jeffrey and Jill Erickson .

action

The young cop Chris meets Pam one evening in a pub and falls in love with her on the spot. It wasn't until late that he realized that the attractive blonde was addicted to alcohol and drugs, but the two decided to get married anyway. But marriage turns into a drama, it turns out that Pam has never climaxed in bed with a man, even in family life, the woman is characterized by coldness of feeling. For example, she appears at the funeral of Chris' father with roller skates and of course completely drunk.

Chris is cut by his fellow police officers, he becomes more and more of an outsider, eventually he is even fired. The increasing financial worries soon become overwhelming for the two of them, but Pam's lifestyle demands considerable financial resources. So the former police officer decides to finance his living with bank robberies. He had a lot of experience as a police officer. When his wife discovers where the new wealth is coming from, his sex life suddenly improves. Pam is fascinated by the raids and ends up begging until her husband agrees to take her on the next tour.

When the two finally stole enough money to be able to afford a house and live in prosperity, Chris decides to stop the robberies. He fulfilled his dream and became an independent bookseller. But Pam can't stand the quiet and "normal life". She is unhappy and cannot come to terms with a bourgeois existence. That's why she leaves her husband. But Chris can't stand the separation and tries to win back his beloved. Only one possible solution emerges: Another criminal robbery!

The police are now on their heels. In the next coup, Chris is finally arrested. Pam, who is sitting in the getaway car, escapes first. A chase ensues in which the woman also shoots uninvolved passers-by. Ultimately, the fugitive is caught; however, she kills herself before she can be arrested. During the ensuing court hearing, Chris stole a gun from an officer and attempted a bloody, pointless escape. When he is badly injured on the ground, he too commits suicide .

Remarks

The film did not go down well with audiences in test screenings. That's why the distributor Fine Line Features decided to give it to HBO for the first broadcast. With that he sparked an argument with the director and so it was decided to venture a theatrical release after all, but to a very limited extent; It was only shown in a few cinemas for a week and no advertising or publicity was used at all.

An initial criticism in the industry magazine Variety was also rather restrained: "John McNaughton's new picture admirably brings the crime-and-violence cycle back to reality, but Fine Line will be hard-pressed to carve out a major niche for a film whose major components are so familiar at this point. "(" The new John McNaughton film admirably brings the cycle of crime and violence back to reality, but Fine Line will have trouble niche for this film, its main components are so familiar. ")

criticism

Peter Sobczynski writes in the internet magazine eFilmCritic in his article “A Good Ashley Judd Film? Believe It or Not! ”(“ A good Ashley Judd film? Hard to believe! ”):" […] Her single greatest performance-indeed, one of the strongest bits of film acting that you are ever likely to see- was in what probably remains the most obscure and least-seen film of her career, John McNaughton's 1996 masterpiece “Normal Life”. "" ([...] actually her only great performance, one of the strongest pieces of film acting that one ever has John McNaughton's 1996 masterpiece "Normal Life" in what is the most obscure and seldom-seen film of their career. "

James Berardinelli in his article on www.reelviews.net : "Luke Perry, giving the most convincing performance of his career to date, makes it clear how desperately, hopelessly smitten Chris is by his wild, troubled wife." ("Luke Perry, who delivers the most convincing idea of ​​his career so far, shows how tormented Chris is by his wild, tormented wife. ”) And finally:“ By depicting the sham of “normality”, “Normal Life” reminds us how fictitious and unattainable the "American dream" can be. " ("By vividly depicting the hoax of" normality ", the film reminds us of how fictional and unreachable the 'American Dream' can be.")

background

The film was shot in various locations in Illinois . The director remarked about the actress: "... in fact she is a bit crazy herself". [ in fact she is a little crazy herself ]

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=health&res=9E0CE4DF143BF932A15754C0A964958260
  2. ↑ cf. http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=print_review&reviewid=VE1117910763&categoryid=31
  3. ↑ cf. http://efilmcritic.com/feature.php?feature=1362&printer=1
  4. ↑ cf. http://preview.reelviews.net/movies/n/normal_life.html
  5. ↑ cf. http://german.imdb.com/title/tt0117202/locations
  6. ↑ cf. http://www.artechock.de/film/text/kritik/n/nolife.htm