The film industry is filled with interesting titles for its productions. I used to think the longer a title was, the more likely it is that you will be viewing a lousy movie. Of course, nothing is ever always out never. Furthermore, you sometimes find yourself wondering what the title means for a film. As I learned from watching enough episodes of ‘Mystery Science Theater 3000,’ a movie can be summed up with its title very quickly, but what about those productions which are a bit more ambiguous? What if you walk away from a film wondering where in the world the title actually came from?
Ah, yes, Apple TV+ has begun to throw its hat into the same ring with Netflix. I must say, as I have often enough before, the production quality for these streaming services is impressive, compared to other competitors. However, by that same token, I have also pointed out the lack of great stories and acting performances, overall. Still, I will not say no to progress. It is possible, after all. With that being said, “Sharper” represents the latest offering on Apple TV+, while being co-distributed by A24, a company which had a great year that just ended only a couple of months ago. So, what of it, then…?
In the beginning, there was Tom, played by Justice Smith (“Jurassic World Dominion”). He owns his own bookstore and soon interacts with a beautiful, new customer, Sandra, played by Briana Middleton (“The Tender Bar”). Before we know it, the two are love birds, accompanying each other through their daily lives, until the roof seemingly caves in. At some point, Tom offers to help Sandra with a financial dilemma involving her brother and this is where the story turns a quick corner.
From here, it becomes pretty clear what the pattern might be for the remainder of the story: a title card will introduce us to the lead character of each segment and the next segment is bound to be about someone with which the previous character interacted with. Trust me, this IS the approach. Whether it works or not is up to you, but I think it becomes too repetitive and, as a result, feels too formulaic. Perhaps the characters are more important than the story, but that leaves something to be desired, as well, in my view, but let us move on…
When the scenes shift, it takes a little bit of time to understand where we are in the timeline, but once that is settled, the story holds this same path for the bulk of the movie. With Sandra now as the main focus, we are introduced to the next character down the line: he is Max, played by Sebastian Stan (“Fresh”). Whatever it was that Sandra was doing with Tom was preceded by this stage of her life and it was not pretty. 
I began to think that maybe this entire story would come back, full circle, almost in the form of an anthology, though there are some aspects of that sub-genre which are pretty different. Be that as it may, lack of predictability is not an automatic predictor for epic cinema. In other words, originality does not necessarily equal greatness. Anyway…
The lack of predictability is not the issue when it comes to “Sharper.” Yes, I was able to see what was going to happen several steps ahead of the film, but that did not matter. It was the wooden acting by certain players and the failure of the moviemakers to generate any real sympathy for these characters that hurt this project the most, as I see it. Maybe the breakdown of the story played a role in that. I cannot think of too many other times in which big screen veterans like Julianne Moore (“When You Finish Saving the World”) and John Lithgow (“Bombshell”) were so ineffective, but maybe it is just me.
As you might have guessed, Madeline, who was played by Moore, was the next in line for the story arc, after Max. I would say that this segment of the film was the strongest, overall. Moore and Stan seemed to work together well and their side story was probably the most intriguing, as well. Every character learned from someone else and they did not learn about anything virtuous; rather useful, though immoral.
Where the story comes back to the beginning is between Tom and Sandra, sinking or swimming. At least someone learned something valuable, which was also honorable. I think the story might have wrapped up too easily. Were we supposed to assume that these two can trust each other, going forward? If not, why was there no attempt to make that speculation more obvious? If I may tie my OWN article back up to the beginning, what was the meaning of the title? Well, I happen to think that with each passing character segment, we are seeing someone sharper than the last one. The irony is that the sharpest character, in the end, seemed to be the least sharp at the beginning. If that was the the intention, I at least like that, but not much else beyond the typical, surface details I have come to expect these days.
Director: Benjamin Caron
Screenwriters: Brian Gatewood and Alessandro Tanaka
Starring: Julianne Moore, Sebastian Stan, Justice Smith, Briana Middleton and John Lithgow as Richard Hobbes
Cinematographer: Charlotte Bruus Christensen
Distributors: A24 and Apple TV+
Release: February 10th, 2023 (United States) and February 17th, 2023 (Apple TV+)
