Sharper Movie Review: This Film That Takes Pleasure In Its Perversion
Cast: Briana Middleton, Julianne Moore, Sebastian Stan and John Lithgow
Director: Benjamin Caron
Streaming Platform: Apple Tv+
Filmyhype.com Ratings: 4/5 (four stars) [yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]
Sharper, directed by Benjamin Caron, written by Brian Gatewood and Alessandro Tanaka, and distributed by A24, ambiguously poses itself concerning this thing, slightly disappointing expectations (which, to tell the truth, were very high). Available to stream on Apple TV+ from February 17, it’s the dark story of a ruthless group of people who have one and only one thing in common: a love of money, a willingness to do almost anything to get a lot of it, even to betray each other. It will be the cast (so on the tip of the tongue we tell you Julianne Moore and Sebastian Stan), it will be the extremely sleek and noir trailer, but the feeling once seen is that Sharper has not kept his promises and his premises. Apple TV+ has accustomed us to a superlative selection of content. The perfect balance between the unexpected and the enjoyable, well-made, discreet, always quality films, often with notable casts.
If there is a genre capable of attracting a large audience and of enjoying success with different targets, this is the psychological thriller: as we will see in this Sharper review, the film directed by Benjamin Caron arriving on Apple TV+ uses the typical elements of this type of cinema to make fun of the audience with the stories of a group of scammers. Who is the cheater and who is being cheated? We will only find out in the finale when the mysteries of the plot are finally unraveled. Sharper’s greatest merit lies in his cast, which brings together names like Julianne Moore, Sebastian Stan, and John Lithgow, interpreters capable of narrating a world of unbridled luxury and great ambitions, in which the protagonist’s move driven by the only need to get status and money. A particularly intriguing story in its way, a pity that at times the film seems to take itself too seriously, loading with excessive drama moments that deserved a completely different tone to be more incisive and memorable. In our opinion, a little more levity would have been enough to make Benjamin Caron’s story more engaging and enjoyable.
Sharper Movie Review: The Story Plot
In Sharper, the story unfolds through the different perspectives of its protagonists, the first of which is Tom (Justice Smith), the young owner of a bookstore who falls in love with a university student, Sandra (Briana Middleton). However, she has a difficult family situation behind her, she grew up in a foster family and has a brother who got into a bad situation and would need a large sum of money. In this, however, Tom can help her, he is the son of a very rich businessman and can give him all the money the woman needs: a pity, however, that as soon as Sandra receives the sum, Sandra disappears, leaving Tom faced with the evidence to have been scammed. Then we discover the story of Sandra, who is a young reckless, with a serious addiction to drugs: her life changes when she is “found” by Max (Sebastian Stan), an expert crook who instructs her in the art of cheating.
Max is then linked to the rich Madeline (Julianne Moore), the girlfriend of a rather elderly millionaire, who is slowly currying favor to inherit all of her money. She too is an expert con artist, willing to do anything to build a future of luxury and comfort, even trampling on those she claims to love. Divided into parts bearing the names of its characters, Sharper has an atypical, somewhat messy temporal trend. He departs from the near present and, name by name steps back and reveals a more intricate design than one might expect. Then he returns to the present, and the plots are revealed, the knots come to a head, and the situation precipitates and flies away. But let’s go in order. Tom is a sensitive boy prone to depression who has lost his mother. His father, Richard, is a very rich and influential man, who allows him to do what he wants. Like, for example, keeping an indie antiquarian bookstore open even if it doesn’t make a cent.
One day Sandra enters this library, who seems like the woman made for him. The two fall in love, but she disappears after deceiving him for $350 million. Max is a handsome young sociopathic con man who trudges from place to place trying to rob his hapless victims. He is the son of Madeline, Richard’s partner, or so it is useful for him to believe the rich man. The plan, of course, in cahoots with Madeline, is to steal some money from him and, knowing he is very ill, to get his hands on his inheritance. We don’t continue so as not to give you spoilers but know that the twists never end where you expect.
Sharper Movie Review and Analysis
Different stories intertwine slowly revealing the secrets and lies of a group of characters in which no one is really what they seem. The protagonists are particularly skilled in staging the ambiguity of their characters, Julianne Moore and Briana Middleton propel the work with their charisma and their great stage presence. John Lithgow, Justice Smith, and Sebastian Stan do not disfigure either, in the role of a man with many dark sides. The cast is perhaps the greatest value of this film which, as we anticipated, wavers a bit as regards tone and rhythm: Sharper takes himself excessively seriously, loading the entire narrative system with exaggerated gloom and drama.
The desire to add depth to this story, therefore, ends up weighing down the film, making it less pleasant and smooth to watch. The spectator is still intrigued and goes on to find out “who is cheating whom”, but only that extra dose of self-irony and levity would have been enough to amuse the audience, which instead risks being more boring than involved at times. Too bad, because many of the ideas on which the film is based – especially those related to the “surprise” ending – are interesting.
How far might people go for power and wealth? What sick relationships are triggered between these characters? How cutthroat and cheating do you have to be to make it in life (and to scam other scammers in a constant loop)? A series of questions are generated by this film that takes pleasure in its perversion, which continues to shuffle the cards on the table to make everything darker and sicker. The effect is tiring. Sharper is a cinematic game to understand how much you can pull the rope with reversals, twists, and role changes. The answer is: very little, it seems, without risking compromising the very integrity of the script and its characters and without going from the vaguely disturbing entertainment film to the gimmick of experimental genre literature.
Sharper Movie Review: The Last Words
The starting point of Sharper is interesting and engaging, too bad that the film with Julianne Moore, Sebastian Stan, and John Lithgow is loaded with excessive gloom and takes itself too seriously. A series of questions are generated by this film that takes pleasure in its perversion, which continues to shuffle the cards on the table to make everything darker and sicker. The effect is tiring. Sharper is a cinematic game about figuring out how far you can pull the string.
