The Collegio Pittsburg's student voice since 1916
Himika Akram reporter
Long awaited Juliane Moore and Sebastian Stan star in “Sharper” would remind you of those classy drama genre films from the decade of sixties.
Sharper is a con thriller movie which released on Apple TV on Feb. 17 and at the theatres on Feb. 10. It’s all about secrets, lies, greed and puzzles. Every character is double, triple even quadruple-crossing each other to gain his or her own interest. Every character is like onions; you peel back layers after layers to find out their true characters.
The storyline seems to have tried to follow or even copy the style of David Mamet in terms of the storyline, but what made Mamet stand out in the crowd was his dialogues with big punches. That is where Brian Gatewood and Alessandro Tanaka, the writer- duo fell short according to the critic reviews of this film.
Directed by Benjamin Caron, this movie introduces each character with their own story. Tom works in a bookstore which sells the first editions of the bestselling novels. One night, a customer named Sandra walked into his store and there was an instant chemistry between them. On the one side there is sad and lonely Tom, on the other side there is the sweet and empathetic soul Sandra. Soon their equation evolved into a beautiful romance until Sandra reveals her brother is in big trouble and only money can save him.
Due to his feelings for Sandra, Tom offered help to Sandra. He thinks he can get her the amount from his extremely rich father, Richard. In this whole movie Richard’s character seemed like a collateral damage. As one can assume, from this point all the trouble starts as Sandra disappears with the money.
Anything more I add at this point, would be a spoiler. This movie, after a long time was a refreshing break from the non-stop flow of sci-fi, animation or superhero films. It did a great job to make the audience glued to the TV screen. Even though, the biggest cast of this film were Julianne Moore and Sebastian Stan, I would say, the most noticeable performance is delivered by Briana Middleton in her character of Sandra. I would even go to the extent of saying; it was her film. The immense potential she showed with her performance despite being a newcomer, I would not be surprised if she starts bagging more big budget films from this point.
If you are a twist lover, then this film is a must-watch for you, because it will definitely keep you guessing till the end. Even though the movie has received negative criticism in the sense that it gave so many twists that it lost touch with the reality. But that is the purpose of twist, isn’t it? If it is too realistic, then it is too predictable and what’s the point in watching it then? After a long time, it seemed to me that I watched a really good drama genre film. Arianna Grande’s ‘7 Rings’ in the trailer was like a cherry on the cake. My personal rating of this film would be 7/10.