Yahoo Autos Apple TV+ 'Sharper' director cleverly blends rom-com elements with a thriller on deceit
"Sharper is a movie less interested in crime specifically and more interested in how people talk, flirt, lie ... to get what they want," Benjamin Caron says
From his work on the Netflix hit The Crown and the Andor series on Disney+, director Benjamin Caron takes us through the twists and turns of deception in the Apple TV+ film Sharper, starring Julianne Moore, Sebastian Stan, Justice Smith, Briana Middleton and John Lithgow.
“Deception is a sort of defining feature of this movie, but I would say that Sharper is a movie less interested in crime specifically and more interested in how people talk, flirt, lie, impersonate, connive in order to get what they want,” Caron told Yahoo Canada. “Small deceptions have far reaching, sort of explosive effects, … so a character’s sense of themselves becomes threatened.”
“That was absolutely everything that I kind of responded to in the movie. … I was thinking about this the other day. I was thinking, look how pervasive sort of cheating and lying has become everywhere. We have fake news. We have people who can go online and create sort of profiles, and false impressions of who they are. So everything has to be questioned.”
Playing with the thriller genre, starting with a romantic comedy feel
For Sharper, written by Brian Gatewood and Alessandro Tanaka, Caron was also able to really play with genre throughout the story. The film is certainly a thriller and a drama, but at the outset of the film, it feels like a romantic comedy. Sharper begins with bookstore owner Tom (Smith) meeting PhD student Sandra (Middleton). As the two start to hit it off, we get put into this seemingly sweet love story, before you get into the deceit of the narrative.
“I think maybe a while back films had to sort of stay within the boundaries of what that genre was, … it has to be just horror, or it has to be just a romantic comedy,” Caron said. “I think audiences are smart and films like Parasite have shown you how you can sort of slightly play with genres within one film.”
“In a film about sort of leaning into misdirection and mischief I thought it's a fun way to start Sharper, where it's almost as though Richard Curtis was making Notting Hill in New York. We start when Sandra and Tom meet. It's springtime in New York, which is kind of a classically romantic season and a perfect time to fall in love. [It] kind of embodies hope, new beginnings."
The romantic comedy feel at the beginning of the movie also helps the audience feel invested in the love story between these two characters, which is quite critical to make the rest of the movie work.
“You really need to believe in this couple, you need to believe that there is a connection between Tom and Sandra," Caron said. "It's really important for the payoff at the end."
