Do you like films with twists? How about a film with a hundred twists? Sharper presents itself in a handful of different chapters, one for each of the main protagonists/antagonists (they’re all a bit of both), each instalment providing a new perspective, each one rewinding, peeling back onion layers and revealing spiralling levels of fuckery. It’s both fun and tedious.
Tom (Justice Smith, here a sympathetic sap) works in a humble, quiet New York bookstore. When Sandra (Briana Middleton) appears, looking for an old classic, his synapses spark. He’s lost and lonely, she’s all sweet smiles and empathy, and soon they’re in love, enjoying a blissful relationship, until trouble emerges. Her brother needs money — a lot of money — and Tom thinks he can help. From there, a film which has for ten minutes been a sweet millennial meet-cute changes into a con drama in which anything mentioned here would be spoilery, but suffice it to say, nobody is what they seem, everyone is taken for a fool, and people are double, triple, quadruple-crossed to dizzying degrees.
There's enough to hold your attention, but there's something missing.
Director Benjamin Caron directed some episodes of Andor, including the final two — masterclasses in tension and dramatic action. Oddly, there’s not much of that going on here, despite the jigsaw-like story and the high stakes. It’s slick, handsome work (thanks to cinematographer Charlotte Bruus Christensen, who made A Quiet Place look so good), but if you’re expecting Andor stress levels, you might feel deflated.
It’s easy to see, though, why the cast would have been into it — they’re all playing, basically, liars, who get to present themselves one way, and then another, and in some cases, yet another. As the romantic partner of John Lithgow’s gazillionaire widower, Julianne Moore has a blast being very Julianne Moore, without doing anything she hasn’t done better before. Briana Middleton is great, the best thing here, the film’s heart and soul. She contains multitudes. Sebastian Stan, meanwhile, doubles down on his recent penchant for playing obnoxious, volatile, violent assholes. From Fresh to Pam & Tommy and now this, he’s sandwiching much sleaze between his MCU outings, once again playing an insalubrious scumbag, a swaggering moral abyss. He’s good at it, clearly delighting in unlikability — all hail the new king of toxic masculinity.
So this is a good cast and crew, chewing on knotty material. Yet Sharper is a somewhat vapid affair, the shaggiest of dogs, where revelations feel like shrugs and coincidences feel like contrivances. There’s enough to hold your attention — it’s entertaining here and there, in its silliness — and it’s not un-fun watching this lot — but there’s something missing. It’s all plot, and not nearly enough humanity — it would be a whole lot more effective if we were given more reason to actually care about these people, or about what happens to any of them. If you’re up for a diverting yarn, it is definitely that. But only that.
