Sharper

By Joanna Langfield

Not as sharp as it thinks it is, this con game still pays a small jackpot in the end.

We begin as a hot young couple meet in a New York City bookstore. All goes amazingly well until she confesses to him that her brother is in big trouble. Owes major money to some bad guys. He pays up. And she takes off.

Or does she?

Written with clever intentions, this con takes us from the glamorous penthouses of Fifth Avenue to the abandoned parking lots of Queens. Everybody is connected, maybe everybody is up to no good. Even with all the allegedly twisty twists, alert, or maybe just experienced viewers will know what’s coming. It certainly would be more fun if we didn’t. A sharper piece would have had us sitting on the edge of our seats, worrying about the nice young man (nicelye end. played by Justice Smith) as we found ourselves surprised by the evolving reveals. Here, it’s fun to watch as the puzzles come together, even if the way they do so is somewhat predictable.

It’s also fun to watch the stars of the movie do their thing. Relative newcomer Briana Middleton acquits herself well as the woman in the bookstore, John Lithgow makes for a charming billionaire, Sebastian Stan is fine as a mysterious manipulator but it’s Julianne Moore who delivers the goods, clearly having a blast as a woman who, like the movie around her, isn’t quite as sharp as she thinks she is.