Saturday, February 18, 2023

Sharper - 3 Stars - Apple TV - February 17, 2023

Everybody's a con artist in the psychological thriller Sharper.  The story begins as quiet bookstore owner Justice Smith asks bookish Brian Middleton to dinner on a whim.  The couple bond and we think it might be the real thing until---she needs money.  $350 thousand dollars later, we meet Sebastian Stan who has schooled Briana in the art of the con.  Later we meet Julianne Moore, Sebastian's alleged mother now in a relationship with billionaire John Lithgow, who utters the key line in the movie "If you're going to steal---steal a lot."  Sharper gives this cast a clever script.  The great ensemble manages to get us beyond a couple of weak plot twists.  For me, believing wasn't as important as enjoying the next twisty twist, and there are a lot of them - enough to make Sharper fun and watchable.