Wandering Along the Path: Right Speech

My friend and I saw a movie last weekend that surprised us about how good it was.  "Norman" is a story about a Manhattan "fixer", who drops names and harasses people into helping him grant favors to others.  Richard Gere is Norman, and he's amazing.  The character is obnoxious, familiar, sad and oblivious.  He is in a lonely fantasy world made up by himself and he is taken in as much by his malarky as anyone.  But finally all his promises and lies converge and he realizes he is harming people he likes.  The cast is excellent, with Michael Sheen as his nephew, Steve Buschemi as his rabbi and Charlotte Gainsborough as a person he meets who becomes his undoing.  Actions have consequences and Norman has been living in a world where the "score" is his goal, and he's never thought beyond.  The film shows us a world of name dropping and falsity so pervasive that people trust the social forms and the substance is lost.  We've all seen a little of it, at a party or fund raising event or at work functions.  But some people live and breathe the artifice, and Norman is both entrapped and unconsciously harming others.  He can't see the connection between his actions and the consequences.  He doesn't really believe in himself or his power, until it is too late to step away from the lies.  It's a movie that gets you thinking.