MovieChat Forums > Sharp Objects (2018) Discussion > Not much payoff

Not much payoff

posted 6 years ago by mobocracy (902)
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Not much payoff here. A lot of character development and exposition that just got abandoned. At least with Agatha Christie or other parlor mysteries, the red herrings wind up making sense and add the fun of the reveal. Here the whole thing just kind of went thud.

1) Alan -- what was his deal? He was kind of like interior decoration for the house, but a husband like that written and portrayed as so distant and submissive there had to be more than explains his motivation and inaction. How does some kind of blue-blood wind up married to a southern heiress with kids, only to wind up being her accessory?

2) The Police Chief. So *maybe* he had an affair with Adora? Kind of makes sense, maybe, but what's the deal with repeating that goofy morning domestic scene? I couldn't think of a single reason that was portrayed that tied into anything. Filler.

3) Camille's backstory is just as odd. It's basically confirmed she was gang-raped in high school. Or was she? I think this series used hazy, hallucinatory allusions a little too much. More solid backstory exposition on some of these characters and their past would have added something to this.

I mean it was a kind of entertaining ride overall, but at the end I think it could have been about 3 episodes shorter and wound up making more sense.

[–] dmac8 (5050) 6 years ago

At least Amma returned the pliers to the kitchen drawer like a good girl.

[–] [email protected] (1367) 6 years ago

LOL...

[–] [deleted] 6 years ago

Agree, and all that time focused on useless quirky details then the big climactic ending is attached to the credits. Sloppy!!!!!!!!!

[–] [email protected] (1367) 6 years ago

I read a few interviews with the author of the book which helps answer a few things..

You are right about Alan. He was very aware of what was ahppening, yet he didnt get arrested like Adora.

The morning rituals of the police chief was a cheap attempt to make us wonder about his participation in all of this. Useless footage. Filler, like you said.

Camille.... Well she submitted to her mothers serum so she could gain evidence against her. That almost cost her her life. What I want to know is the cuttings on her back. Noone can have that good of flexibility to have done that alone..So did her sister Marion do it? Her mother?
I will read the book. Most say the book is close to the series, but goes more in depth on some points.

[–] mobocracy (902) 6 years ago

I wondered about many of the cuttings in places that would be extremely difficult to do. Not just her back, either, but pretty much any place hard to reach with her dominant hand.

My biggest complaint about this series was indulging both time and effort into red herrings which didn't matter. What's frustrating was that the acting and production were so top notch that these scenes were interesting, but that their lack of contribution to the narrative resolution made that resolution kind of flimsy.

[–] [email protected] (1367) 6 years ago

agree with you

[–] dmac8 (5050) 6 years ago

I'm no expert on cutting but she's cut words in a way that others can read better than she.

Not only difficult to execute without long arms and a mirror -- but why cover up then?

I thought cutting is a release of pain that the cutter tries to hide evidence of.

These are more akin to tattoos, like a billboard for others -- yet she tries to hide them anyway?

[–] [email protected] (1367) 6 years ago

Yes I believe cutting is a release of pain...but the cutter usually hides the wounds..Either ashamed, or dosent want to be questioned about it.
Same with in 13 Reasons Why.. Main character cut her inner thighs and always hid the wounds.

Im still not convinced Camille did all the cutting. Her mother was seen stroking her back as a young girl. Maybe the book will shed some light about that.

[–] mobocracy (902) 6 years ago

It's funny though, if you stop and think about Camille and her cutting/scars -- what, exactly, did they add to the story other than "Camille is damaged"? I'm trying to think if the story would have been different without Camille's scars, and for the life of me I can't see how it would have changed the narrative at all.

It seems to weigh so heavily throughout the series but it doesn't really seem like its absence would have materially changed much in the story other than Camille's distance/lack of deeper engagement with the investigator.

[–] OldG (853) 6 years ago

Well it is there to indicate something is wrong with her (and for the viewers to questions why is that)... Also growing up in a house with a mother suffering from Munchaussen by Proxy would affect you deeply, so if Camilla was just a normal reporter with a normal life after that childhood would have seemed more odd to me that her cutting herself...

[–] dmac8 (5050) 6 years ago

A device to name episodes after? That's all I can think of. This story denatured her context so much from the moment the writer went into Munchausen overdrive as a clumsy, ineffective way to misdirect to set up the final "twist". So much time was spent on nuanced character development that either didn't follow or went nowhere in the end.

[–] OldG (853) 6 years ago

Where did you want it to go? It was there to show she was a severely damaged individual... and for us (the viewer) to wonder why a seemingly normal person would do that... did you not get a satisfactory answer to why she was damaged mentally?

[–] dmac8 (5050) 6 years ago

After all that time, stressing all those details over and over, I want the culmination to be specifically connected to those details. If not, there's no need for hours of showing her damaged self with all these details and endless flashbacks. We knew that she's clearly damaged from the first episode, right? It could've been a 2 hr movie without the harping on so many things that played no role in the end.

But take an example of a more effective setup and pay off from within this series.

Camile is listening to Led Zeppelin in an obsessive way.
Camile flashes back to a certain section of a toilet.
Camile reacts to the housekeeper at her motel with the mop and bucket.

All the above is stressed.

Then we find out that:

She was listening to Led Zeppelin with the young girl in the facility
That young girl died.
She took the bolt from that section of a toilet to harm herself.
An orderly attends to the aftermath with a similar mop and bucket.

Every detail where the writer/director is saying "Pay attention to this!" is paid off.

Try to do that with Munchausen over all those details that were stressed over and over across all those episodes.
In the end, you could've plopped in that aliens came down long ago, did something to her sister, but she got away, as the reason for her damaged state. Anything can work if you feel no need to connect the specifics in the setup to anything specific in the end. But I don't think you'd like my new ending, right? B/c that's not good writing.

[–] AvoidFilmboards (7) 6 years ago

It's basically confirmed she was gang-raped in high school. Or was she?

she definitely was. one of the players apologized to her for his part in it, at the party.