Review 467: Sharp Objects

When the bonds of family break, can you ever put them back together? That's the question that Sharp Objects wants us to ponder - a stylish, engrossing, highly addictive miniseries bolstered by a captivating leading performance by Amy Adams.

Based on the novel Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn, Crime reporter Camille Preaker (Amy Adams), suffering from alcoholism and recently discharged from a psychiatric hospital after years of self-harming, returns to her home town of Wind Gap, Missouri, to investigate the murders of two young girls. The assignment takes her back to her childhood home under the critical eye of her mother Adora Crellin (Patricia Clarkson), a small town socialite which forces Preaker to confront her own personal demons.

The plot is a dark twisted, boarderline uncomfortable and unsettling look into the darkest aspects of trauma. It really is a testament to Flynn’s skill as author that the central mystery is

about recovery, jelousy and the cycles of abuse. The way it handles these themes is through study of character as opposed to a standard procederal plot

Recovery:

Jelousy:

Cycles of Abuse: As Camille slowly but surely starts to uncover the mystery, she begins to realise just how deep the the Cycles of Abuse run within her family, from Amma to her mother and even herself and how deeply and profoundly it affects them.

Director Jean-Marc Vallee's direction is stylish and suspenseful crafting an unsettling atmosphere and making excellent useage of reaction shots. The eight part mininseries is driven entirely by Camille and her reactions. Where she goes, the camera follows and we go. Where she looks, we look and the camera shows her reaction to some incredibly disturbing and uncomfortable imagery.
The cinematography is beautiful and captures the beauty and danger of Wind Gap, Missouri, the production design is splendid, the Wind Gap setting is alluring and atmospheric, the scenery is beautiful, the costumes are splendid, the soundtrack is as excellently haunting as it is beautifully varied.

The character of Camille Preaker is very complex and Amy Adams really sinks her teeth into the role and delivers a very gripping, enigmatic performance. Camille is haunted because she's highly affected by the death of her younger sister which she feels in some ways responsible for and the alienation that she experienced throughout her childhood from her mother.
She's character with a really good spirit but at the same time is a very damaged person; She’s not long removed from a stint in rehab coupled with the fact that she’s still a raging alcoholic. Through her investigations of these murders, she uncovers some really disturbing turths about herself, her traumas and her own family. She has a lot pain yet has nowhere to put it.

Camille's emotionally distant and cold mother Adora is a character with an equally dark and messed up past and Patricia Clarkson

Through Amma, we get to the see the causes and effects of hurt, manipulation and pain from Adora and newcomer Eliza Scanlen exerptly brings to life her troubling behavior in some deeply unsettling ways that are uncomfortable to watch

Chris Messina

Henry Czerny

4.5/5.

The Anonymous Critic.