Sharper
Amoral New Yorkers misbehave in Benjamin Caron’s slick romantic drama.
A two-faced Julianne Moore
According to the opening caption, a sharper is someone “who lives by their wits.” So this may not be a love story after all. Or is it? It starts romantically enough, with the first chapter entitled ‘Tom’, focussing on the solitary, bookish world of a young man called Tom (Justice Smith). Tom is deep in a volume of the complete works of Edgar Allan Poe when an attractive young woman, Sandra (Briana Middleton), walks in off the street, looking for a hardcover copy of Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God. It transpires that she’s a PhD student at NYU and is studying “the redefining of radicalism and the rise of black feminism in American literature”. So she’s pretty and bright, whereas Tom seems a little uncertain of himself, a timorous shadow in the glare of this rainbow. Then, on a whim, he invites Sandra out to dinner, a solicitation that she gently, politely turns down. Still, the film is hovering within the margins of such studious confections as You’ve Got Mail, Notting Hill and even Can You Ever Forgive Me? and, as we had hoped, she has a change of heart. Dinner leads to an exchange of confessions, ideas and revelations, and Tom trumps the date by showing Sandra a signed, first edition of Jane Eyre, by Currer Bell (of course).
The second chapter is entitled ‘Sandra’ and the narrative takes an unexpected swerve in a new direction. It becomes uncertain as to whose story this really is, as each chapter is linked to a new character, creating an increasingly more compelling daisy chain of intrigue. There’s a whiff of six degrees of separation, which in itself makes for absorbing drama. And with Julianne Moore top-billed, we know she is also going to get her own chapter. But who is she? And who is Tom for that matter? And who is Sandra?
There’s nothing wrong with a film that keeps its audience guessing, until the point when the viewer starts second-guessing the film. Sharper is a jolly good watch, thanks largely to Clint Mansell’s sumptuous score, Charlotte Bruus Christensen’s seductive photography and the committed performances from a top-notch cast. But, just as one fears by the halfway mark, Sharper begins to overplay its hand, deserting the authenticity of its set-ups for something more contrived, less interesting, perhaps more far-fetched. The thing is, if you’re going to manipulate the viewer, it’s best not to let him or her into the act. The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he did not exist. Here, the devil may be in the detail but his horns start showing far too early in the game.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Cast: Julianne Moore, Sebastian Stan, Justice Smith, Briana Middleton, Darren Goldstein, John Lithgow, Phillip Johnson Richardson, Kerry Flanagan, David Pittu, Quincy Dunn-Baker.
Dir Benjamin Caron, Pro Bart Freundlich, Brian Gatewood, Alessandro Tanaka, Erik Feig and Julianne Moore, Screenplay Brian Gatewood and Alessandro Tanaka, Ph Charlotte Bruus Christensen, Pro Des Kevin Thompson, Ed Yan Miles, Music Clint Mansell, Costumes Melissa Toth, Sound Glenn Freemantle.
Apple Original Films/Picturestart/IAC Films-A24 Films.
116 mins. USA. 2022. UK and US Rel: 17 February 2022. Available on AppleTV+. Cert. 15.
