Chief star and executive producer Amy Adams delivers a career-defining performance.
The pilot episode of Sharp Objects, starring Amy Adams and Patricia Clarkson, is here and it looks like HBO just might have another hit on its hands. The first episode, titled Vanish, has bagged 100 per cent positive review(s) on Rotten Tomatoes.
Director Jean-Marc Vallée, who previously helmed Big Little Lies and the Academy-Award nominated Dallas Buyers Club, has extracted such a strong performance from Amy Adams that critics are calling for Amy to be nominated for an Emmy next year and that too after just one episode.
In its review, New York Observer, drawing parallels between Vallée’s True Detective (season one) and Sharp Objects noted, “Sharp Objects seems to be an entertaining southern gothic exploit, with the depressed small town of Wind Gap echoing the vibe of the vast flatlands of True Detective’s Louisiana setting in season one. Vallée has traded Monterey for Missouri but kept the same sense that something isn’t quite right. The more off-kilter it goes, the more interesting it becomes.”
Noted The Guardian, “It is gripping, strange, elegant and happy to be difficult... what a series to start in a heatwave, too: it’s clammy, sticky and soaked in sweat.”
AV Club, in its review, noted just how good Amy Adams is in a series that addresses issues like body harm, and is in tone, darker than Big Little Lies.
“[Amy] Adams is a maestro of the micro-expression. She makes moments that would seem clunky and redundant anywhere else seem both shocking and elegant.”
The article further stated: “Adams is one of our greatest living performers and now that Leonardo DiCaprio has his Oscar, can we now direct our rending of garments and gnashing of teeth over the fact that the Arrival star still doesn’t have one? She evinces grit and fragility in a single look.”
As for certain words that kept coming up during the pilot, Sharp Objects author Gillian Flynn, whose book serves as the basis for the series said in one interview, “If you’re paying attention, you see it,” Flynn explained. “But if you miss it, it’s not a big deal either. I’m not a huge fan of the things you must see but I think those are lovely little notes for people.”
She also noted that if the pilot was about introducing the series, the second episode is about learning more about the town, Wind Gap, Missouri.
“It’s very much getting to know Wind Gap as a place, what its mores are, what its physicality is, what its protocols are, which are very important in this town. To me, there’s no better way to understand the way people treat each other and the way people think and interact than at a funeral. That’s when everyone gets boiled down to who they really are.”
