Sharper Parent Guide

When Tom (Justice Smith) meets Sandra (Briana Middleton) in the small bookshop he runs, he’s immediately attracted to her. Their whirlwind romance helps him get over the death of his mother and his strained relationship with his father Richard (John Lithgow), a successful hedge fund manager.

Tom finds himself relying on Sandra a great deal, so when her life starts falling apart, he feels obliged to help. Her brother, a terminal screw-up, owes $350,000 to some very unpleasant people, and Sandra needs to find enough cash to help him “disappear”. She’s shocked when Tom offers to pay the full amount. Sandra’s surprise, however, is nothing compared to the shock she gives Tom when she vanishes with the money.

Unbeknownst to Tom, Sandra has been extensively trained by Max (Sebastian Stan), a career con-artist. As the saying goes, “There’s no honor among thieves” and Sandra can’t really trust Max who can’t trust his associate Madeline (Julianne Moore) either. As it happens, Madeline has been cozying up to Richard for months and Sandra, Max, and Madeline all want a piece of the very rich pie.

Despite a solid cast, Sharper just feels patchy. The surface level action doesn’t have a lot to do with what’s really going on, and although that certainly creates a sense of mystery and intrigue, it also means that the most interesting stuff is happening off-screen. At best, the exciting scheming and betrayals crop up in flashbacks after the fact, when they can’t introduce any tension. This strange screenwriting choice leaves the audience stuck between gears, watching a film that doesn’t quite manage to be either exciting or dramatic enough to justify its own existence.

What this script has in spades, though, is profanity. Clocking in with just under 70 f-bombs in 116 minutes, Sharper might well have earned its title as a description of the characters’ tongues. There’s also some drug and alcohol use, which isn’t going to endear the film to family audiences. Credit where credit is due, the movie manages to avoid any serious sexual activity apart from some clothed make-out sessions and some mild innuendo, but I don’t think that’s enough to make this flick a fun time for grandma.

This movie’s failures are more disappointing than anything, because the ingredients for a fast-paced and exciting con movie are all here, but none of them are in the right place or proportion, like a map drawn from old memory. That said, the cast and the premise are engaging enough to make this watchable for adults– but don’t expect much more than that.