Series : Sharp Objects

As a rule, works feeding or building all their demonstration on the pathos, stagnation, groaning complaint of the protagonists break me small. It takes a lot of talent in the writing, in the treatment of this story, with such broken characters to finally produce such a compelling work.

Indeed, despite many rather slow scenes and a willingly contemplative montage, the series keeps the active spectator’s attention on each episode. The story is initially intriguing, with this series of bizarre murders, then with these characters with strange behaviors.

Finally, it becomes poignant as one progresses to discover the unhappiness of Camille, the heroine played by Amy Adams, whom I already loved enormously and who here leaves me stunned with admiration. His character is rich at will. Of a complexity, a depth that is a pleasure to discover, it offers plenty of surprises during the season.

The actress has a generous ability to give it all kinds of nuances depending on the situation. No excess, all sobriety. This is probably why the pathos does not take over, do not dribble and does not alter the finesse of the portrait. I love this job. She is overwhelming. Admiration.

But, by chance, she is not the only one to congratulate in the distribution. Impossible to not applaud the performance of Patricia Clarkson. It too is not a surprise, far from it. She also offers us a character in dark colors, of a rare complexity. And she does it with exactly the right amount of craziness. The role is appalling. We immediately feel that there is something unhealthy and that does not stop. On the contrary, it comes, little by little, to adjust by small notes the delicacy of its performance. This duo of actresses alone can be considered as the main attraction of the series.

However, I would like to highlight the remarkable writing work. The series paints a hyper-glaucous portrait of America whose backward, degenerate mentalities leave society stuck in completely pathological mental universes. This theme is so recurrent that we could believe in the clumsy repetition, that it leads to a weariness on the part of the viewer. However, it is not. In addition to the talent of the actors, of the direction of play, of the always very sober and fair production of Jean-Marc Vallée, I believe that we owe all this largely to the scenario which takes a great care to describe the situations and especially the psychology of the characters, how much this little American town is plagued by sexual frustrations, the social relations of domination, all endogenous hypocrisy.

All this is written with finesse and intelligence, without excess. Note that we skilfully avoid, which is very rare in this type of social satire, to include the religious characteristics of American society. To avoid tackling it frontally? To avoid cliches about puritanism of deep America?

In any case, the authors manage to reach the goal and describe a nauseating world in decay. Writing very effective. This is really what I retain from this series: she manages to portray an extremely violent and cloisonné world without ever getting bored, or giving moral lessons. There is a very dry, direct tone. She does not make fun of characters too much. Even the most ridiculous are rather cold in the back, at the same time they inspire pity. The writing remains healthy, without being distant either. I have great admiration for this complex work, always in balance, between morbidity and boredom that never falls into these precipices.