Ashley Jones is Perfectly Normal – Charming Comedy
Director: Thomas Bangert
Writer: Thomas Bangert, Kev Stock (Screenplay)
Starring: Hana Yuka Sano, Loa Allebach, Chris Yeschenko, Coby J Marcum, Hallie Newcomer, Marc Herrmann
Plot: Desperate to get her life back to normal after a surprisingly uncommon medical diagnosis, Ashley Jones is forced to examine what “normalcy” really means in a world of mistaken identities, very old, old friends, and poisoned meatballs.
Runtime: 1 Hour 22 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: Ashley Jones is Perfectly Normal starts as we meet Ashley Jones (Sano) a reporter whose is living with Larry (Yeschenko) living a perfectly normal life of routine. Ashley’s life is about to change when she wakes up with Foreign Accent Syndrome, with a thick Japanese accent she never had before.
As Ashley sees her stable life start to fall apart, she starts to try and adapt to the changes, giving her a chance to recreate herself in the process after a chance encounter with Evie (Allebach) who claims to be over 500,000 years old.
Thoughts on Ashley Jones is Perfectly Normal
Characters & Performances – Ashley Jones is reporter, she has a perfectly normal life with her partner, her routine and her job, where everything ticks by as she plans. Here life changes when she gets the unexplained medical condition, Foreign Accent Syndrome, losing her American accent, now having a Japanese one. This will put her career, relationship and friendship position in question, as she looks to adapt to the changes, learning there is something better in life than being perfectly normal. Hana Yuka Sano is great in this leading role, where she must go through a range of emotions as she tries to find the cure to what is happening in her life. Evie is the stranger that Ashley meets, she claims to be 500,000 years old, having knowledge about history that not everyone should know, creating a mystery about whether she is telling the truth of not. Loa Allebach adds the mystery about her character, while balancing another side which could be more of the reality about her. When we look at the rest of the cast, we have Larry who is the partner of Ashley, who fills the routine life perfectly, Bruce is Ashley’s boss aiming to ratings over anything else.
Story – The story here follows a reporter who has a perfectly normal life until one day she has a new medical condition, which will see her needing to figure out what happened, creating a new version of herself along the way. This is a story told with narration, which does give us the ‘500 Days of Summer’ vibe about certain moments, while the main story will be a story of self-discovery, that highlights how easily people can get caught up in the middle of a safe normality life, never wanting to walk outside their comfort zone. The story will have plenty of cuts to different visions of life through the eyes of Ashley along the way.
Themes – Ashley Jones is Perfectly Normal is a comedy that will look to bring everyday life, as Ashley looks to learn about the change, with her imagination taking over how life could go for her, some will be darker than others, which are filled with cheer. Expectation vs reality if you like.
Final Thoughts – Ashley Jones is Perfectly Normal is an enjoyable comedy that will show how life doesn’t need to be perfectly normal.
