REVIEW: Sharper [2023]

Rating: R | Runtime: 116 minutes
Release Date: February 10th, 2023 (USA)
Studio: A24 / Apple TV+
Director(s): Benjamin Caron
Writer(s): Brian Gatewood & Alessandro Tanaka

I don’t watch movies, they are a waste of time.

I wonder if Brian Gatewood and Alessandro Tanaka’s script should have inspired director Benjamin Caron to use a different definition at the start of Sharper. You can’t begrudge the obvious choice considering the title is synonymous with con artist, but I do think the better term is “irony.” Because it’s one thing to play a con on the audience and another to constantly play one on every single character on-screen—each a thief.

One swindler swindles another until it becomes less about the drama of how they do it and more about whether the latest victim can put their money where their mouth is. Because Max (Sebastian Stan) always says, “You can’t con an honest man.” So, if you’re not allowed to pity your mark, you also can’t pity yourself upon discovering you were it.

That unfortunately means the movie itself loses a lot of its luster after chapter one. I really liked that first segment, though. It portrays the blossoming love affair between Tom (Justice Smith) and Sandra (Briana Middleton). He manages a bookstore. She’s a PhD student. They both have endured the death of a parent, the uncertainty of adulthood, and the pain of being made to feel insufficient by someone they love.

And yet we know from the start that it’s all too good to be true. We don’t know why until more details are revealed with which to figure out motive, but that sense of fabrication always looms large—partially because we’ve read the synopsis and partially because the actors toe the line between trust and transparency very well. Right until the other shoe drops.

Next we meet Max. Then Madeline (Julianne Moore) and Richard (John Lithgow). I won’t go into who they are considering they’re each one person via intentional preconceptions and subterfuge before being shown to really be someone else with a quick tug of the rug. So, while each chapter is labeled with a character’s name, they actually introduce the next character’s initial identity as they expose the previous one’s true identity.

Aggressors become victims and victims aggressors as the non-linear vignettes push us forward with just the right amount of information to put the pieces together. Caron and company may have calibrated things too perfectly, though, since it’s impossible not to be one step ahead from pure pattern recognition alone. Tidy cycles lack surprise as a rule.

Enjoyment is therefore in the eye of the beholder. I personally don’t mind knowing where things are going as long as the path is authentically portrayed with interesting characters I can invest in. Sharper delivers for most of its runtime (the climax is ultimately a hastily wrapped up and obvious last hurrah), so I must admit I was satisfied by the experience.

But you’d have to be willfully ignorant not to understand why others wouldn’t since the plot brings nothing new to the table with a progression that rarely holds real stakes. Caron is providing a ride aimed at mainstream audiences who’ve agreed to give themselves over fully to the moment. I’ll liken it to a CBS procedural. The station often wins the ratings game with mediocrely bow-tied programming. It won’t impress anyone, but it’ll do its job.