Julianne Moore and Sebastian Stan's con-artist tale Sharper feels a little too blunt
What's more important: love or money? What if there's $2.6 billion on the line? That's the big question in Apple TV+'s new movie Sharper.
Julianne Moore, Sebastian Stan, Justice Smith and Brianna Middleton are front and centre in this thriller told from four separate angles across the movie's two-hour runtime.
Tom and Sandra (Smith and Middleton) feel like love's young dream when we first meet them in Sharper, and they are – for a solid 10 minutes. Smooth and picture-perfect, the pair dance their way around New York City as a bookshop owner gets swept up in a whirlwind romance with a mysterious master's graduate, unable to believe his luck.
It turns out no one is quite as they seem in this tale – and it unfolds in rapid fashion.
There's no lie in saying the cast is what makes this drama, with Sebastian Stan coming into the fold as the duplicitous Max and Julianne Moore eating up the scenery as the cold and confident Madeline, who is schmoozing billionaire Richard Gibbs (John Lithgow) in a bid to eventually get her hands on his fortune.
Whether you enjoy the film or not, no one can deny Moore is insanely watchable as she calculates her next move, flitting between personalities on a dime and looking like societal royalty at all times.
Her wardrobe is also fantastically on point the entire time, giving the air of someone who is used to money and power, and isn't afraid to wield it.
It's also visually stunning, with every inch of New York used to its best, from dingy dive bars to an Upper East Side penthouse apartment overlooking Central Park.
Unfortunately, it's the actual story itself that lets the side down, providing a by-the-numbers conman tale that's been repeated hundreds of times in cinema already. It's very clear it had the potential to be more than that.
Much like the con artists involved in the story, Sharper is not as clever as it thinks it is. It truly believes it's being smart and one step ahead of the game… but as viewers, the twists are predictable and you can see them coming with only one or two exceptions.
Told in four chapters, we're guided through this ultimate hustle plot via each character's perspective. But the characters themselves are a little threadbare, with little-to-no personal motivation and purpose. It's all about the money, baby. But it becomes obvious very quickly that, to paraphrase The Dark Knight's Joker for a second, they're all like dogs chasing their tails – they wouldn't know what to do if they actually got it.
Pepper in a few obvious visual metaphors (like Max seemingly always within the eyeline of a chess board because hey, he sees life like a game of chess… geddit?), as well as repetitive foreshadowing lines like "You can't con an honest man," and you'll figure out the real winner of the story about half an hour before the ending.
By the end, the final twist is so convoluted it's almost laughable, completely derailing a story that could have come together a little more coherently and with more juice. There's a walk-away strut lifted straight from Keyser Söze in The Usual Suspects, only without the shock factor.
It's not unwatchable by any means, and does at least keep you engaged throughout, but – forgive us for the obvious pun – with a cast this strong, Sharper just needed to be, you know… a little bit sharper.
How to watch Sharper online for free
Sharper will be getting a limited release in cinemas, but if you don't mind not seeing it on the big screen you can catch it right now on Apple TV+.
The streaming service costs £6.99 a month to sign up for if you're not already a subscriber. You also get a seven-day free trial so you could watch Sharper for free and cancel your subscription if you don't fancy anything else Apple TV+ has to offer.
Alternatively, you also get a six-month free trial if you have recently bought an Apple product, and periodically EE customers are also offered a three-month free trial. So if you fit either of those criteria, now's your chance to make the most of it!
If you want to see if the streaming service is worth your time, here's everything that's available to watch right now and the best TV shows to catch up with.
Sharper is out now in select cinemas and is also available to watch on Apple TV+.
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