TV Review: “Sharp Objects”
Gillian Flynn’s debut novel is carried by fantastic actors but placed in the wrong medium
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: it is the Golden Age of Televison. Across the board the production, scripts, and stories have elevated to the same (and sometimes) above the film industry’s playing field. Television has become so popular with the public that film workers themselves have jumped (back) into the world of television. A-list actors are now in limited series, smaller shows that only demand the actor (of such value) once instead of for seven years. While filming a limited series, on average, takes as long as films do which is a win-win for the actor and the producres of the project. Also instead of book-to-film adaptions, we are now getting book-to-tv adaptions. This concept (combinded with the A-list actors) makes sense, and with the massive success of HBO’s Big Little Lies, everyone wants in.
HBO’s Sharp Objects is the latest book to take this journey. Written in 2006, by Gillian Flynn, her debut novel and the mastermind other novels like “Dark Places”, and “Gone Girl” which was adapted into a film in 2014. With the type of stories she tells, Flynn has become the genius behind the dark, twisted, damaged female character and drops them in stories filled with twists, turns, and suspense. This was all proved true when the film adaptation of Gone Girl premiered in 2014 with critical and public acclaim as well award nominations from every award circuit.
But it’s time to put Amazing Amy aside and throw Sharp Objects and Camille Preaker into the spotlight. Camille, to put it nicely, is another one of Flynn’s dark and damaged female characters. But to put it bluntly: Camille’s a mess. She’s a reporter in Chicago who’s constantly drunk and has never gotten over her sister’s death that occurred when she was a young girl. Out of the kindness of her editors heart, he sends Camille back home to Wind Gap, Missouri to report on a murder of a young girl in town but also (at least try) to heal all family wounds and find peace.
Wind Gap is everything you’d expect a community in the deep south to be. It’s hot, humid, beautiful, and animalistic at the same time. It’s like the town itself is stuck in the past, or just doesn’t want to move forward. Everyone is nice to your face but you know they don’t really mean it, they just want to be the prettiest, richest person in town. But of course they’re not. That award of Richest Person in Town goes to Camille’s mother Adora. A strict woman who’s cold to Camille, prides herself on being in control of Wind Gap with her perfect house, perfect life, and her perfect daughter Amma. Camille’s half-sister, Amma, is the Princess of Wind Gap. She’s the most popular kid in her class and everyone wants to be her friend. So when Camille arrives to town Adora isn’t too keen on it but Amma is ecstatic since she’s finally has her big sister back.
As Camille tries to figure out (while drunk of course) who murdered the young girl, the audience and Camille uncovers the mysteries of her family. Mysteries like why Adora is so cold, especially to Camille, and Amma’s double life as a perfect little girl and a mean bully who rides around on rollerskates with her friends that wait on her hand and foot. We also learn a lot about Camille and her demons as well.
What Camille wants to figure out is the truth. The truth to the murder but also the truth of her childhood, the truth of her home. She has most of the pieces but for some reason she can’t put the full puzzle together and throughout the series, she finds out much more than she expected to.
The series takes place from Camille’s point of view as we go on her journey in Wind Gap. But even through Camille is taking us on this journey, the heart of the show reloves around Camille (Amy Adams) and her relationships with Adora (Patricia Clarkson), and Amma (Eliza Scanlen).
Without a doubt I can admit that the reason I watched this show was because of Amy Adams and without a doubt she transforms into this role. Camille is a lost, sad soul. She’s been in a dark tunnel for years and hasn’t seen a glimer of light. She doesn’t have hope, faith, or happiness in her life and doesn’t see the point in any of it. Yet, she is a genuinely good person and if you were to have a conversation with Camille, you’d want to be her friend. She’s a tough role and Adams carefully and brillantly brings her to life. Even though Camille has destructive behavior, the audience never once gets annoyed with her. Instead you’ll fall in love with Camille within the first episode and root for her as the show continues because all she wants is the truth.
Rounding out the supporting cast, Patricia Clarkson and newcomer Eliza Scanlen are both exceptional forces. Both of them do their job ridiculously well. You’ll feel intimidated every time Clarkson is on screen with her stern scowl and glass blue eyes. She’s in charge and she knows it and you know it too. But next to both of these experienced performers is the scene-stealing Eliza Scanlen . No one else could've played this role as well as this 19 year old Australian who fully becomes Amma. Just when you think you have Amma figured out you realize you were completly wrong. One scene she’s lovable and attached to Camille at the hip, begging her to stay in Wind Gap and the next she’s manipulating people, saying she has everyone wrapped around her finger.
This show is exactly what watching a foreign film feels like. It is beautifully put together but requires all of your attention. It is so much more than a murder mystery in the deep south. There are so many little clues and nuances packed into each episode that it’s probably a smart idea to rewatch the entire series as a whole to see what you missed. Without a doubt you will miss something. Maybe it’s something as simple as a line of dialogue or a secret message scratched into the set itself. Every single element in the frame is suppose to be there and everything all comes together at the end, you just might need several rewatches (or a youtube video) to understand. It’s not a show that you can blindly watch. Like I said it’s a murder mystery but it’s so much more than that. This is a story about range, nature vs nurture, jealously, the many layers of femininity, community, grief, the desire for attention, and so much more.
But this show isn’t perfect, meaning that except for the last two episodes, it’s boring. For majority of the show, Camille is driving drunk around town interviewing people who never give her a complete answer. Then (after a couple hours at the bar) she goes home to her restricted mother while trying to figure out which side of Amma she’ll see. The juicy part of the show apprears in the seventh (out of eight) episode which is by far the best of the series. Maybe it was the teleplay, maybe it was the direction that let the show down. Or maybe eight hours of screentime was simply too much time to tell a 254 page story. Personally, I feel that the full story could have been told in two and a half hours (even if that means Adams doesn’t get an Emmy).
But even in the last episode, the show is compacting a lot in 60 mintues. This leaves the audience confused and asking questions that only book readers will know, which is a not a good sign of an adaptation. There are many lose ends and plot points that aren’t answered or never touched on again. Which is annoying becuase as an audience member, I want to know where they fit in the story/what happened.
At the end of the day, a show is remembered by its ending. Even though this show had one of the best endings a television show has had ever (yep that’s right, I said that) and was captivated with the best acting on television this year. A part of me will always be bummed that we never got a two and a half hour film of this story directed by David Fincher (who directed Gone Girl).
Boy, that wouldof been something.
