Sharp Objects review
I absolutely loved it! I was already very much looking forward to it as a fan of the book, and I was really impressed at how it all turned out.Sometimes it can feel a bit forced and obvious that something was adapted from a book if you have a voice-over, and I thought it was really clever how they managed to get inside Camille’s head instead through cutting between present day and flashbacks in the way that they did, and of course Amy Adams was incredible throughout. I was crying at her face in some of the scenes, particularly when her scars are exposed and Adora says that she’s ruined, or when Adora says that she never loved her, your heart just aches for that character
I was a little taken-aback at how nihilistic it all felt actually, although I suppose I should have been expecting it from the book, but it was really tough to watch Amy’s character self-destructing on-screen. The book kind of ends it on a moment of redemption with Camille being taken care of by her editor and his wife, and at first I was disappointed that more of the ending from the book wasn’t included, but in retrospect it does make sense to instead end it on the dawning horror on Camille’s face that there is no escaping the sickness that has been passed down through three generations of women. Amma’s final words were perfect with the mention of their mother as really Adora and Amma were both characters who dealt with the trauma and powerlessness of their upbringings by taking pleasure in hurting other people, whereas Camille dealt with it in a different way by taking all of her pain and rage out on herself :(
And Alan was such a chilling portrayal of a completely useless father who seemed perfectly resigned to just standing by and letting Adora poisen another one of his children! It seemed like he was just choosing to be blind for most of the story, but then when he actively lies about Camille being home, it suggests that he really was aware all along of exactly what Adora was doing, yet he never lifts a finger to stop her. Perfect song choice at the end of episode 6 when he’s dancing with Amma
I really liked the way that the show dealt with the whole idea of worshipping perfect dead girls. We’re told that Adora took an interest in Ann and Natalie precisely because they were ‘wilful’ and reminded her of Camille, and yet the whole town worships them once they’re dead and can be remembered as perfect victims. Amma several times brings up her jealousy of Marian and how she can never be as good as a dead girl. And one of the most telling moments of all is when Ann’s father is telling Camille that it was better that his daughter be murdered than raped. And he’s telling this to Camille, someone who was gang-raped, someone who is covered in scars. It seems like she’s hated by Adora precisely because she insists on surviving as a damaged and ‘you're already ruined’ woman, rather than an idealised dead girl who can be forever remembered as perfect. Even the town play is the celebration of a woman going up in flames after she’s raped and violated, rather than having the misfortune to survive her ordeal and live on as a ruined woman, there are just so many layers to this show.
Oh and I loved Camille’s disinterest when one of the football players tries to apologise for his role in the gang rape, and how he’s haunted by it since he has daughters now (urgh). I loved that Camille doesn’t bother to absolve him as he’s clearly looking for, but just brushes him off with ‘guess we both got fucked that day’.
One small nitpick is that it seemed odd that Camille was given Alice as a roommate, even though that worked for the story obviously. But really it seemed like the worst possible idea to pair a young girl with someone who was the living embodiment of what she feared most about whether it’s possible to ever get over past trauma. There she was hoping that she would one day grow out of her problems, only to be paired with someone older who could pretty much only tell her that no, it won’t ever really get better :(
Another small nitpick is that they *really* underplayed how disturbing the pig scene was in the books, although part of me is relieved because I don’t think I could have sat through watching that kind of animal cruelty. But in the book it’s really clear how utterly revolting Camille finds it to see the pigs being strapped down in sow stalls and unable to move at all as they’re devoured by their offspring (they’ve been banned in the U.K. for a while now thankfully!), while she’s disturbed to witness Amma specifically going there to take pleasure in the mothers discomfort as the piglets are feeding. It’s there in the book to give you the first hint of how disturbing Amma can be, while in the show it had next to no impact at all, so I didn’t really see the point in including it? It mostly seemed to leave audience members speculating what Amma wanted the piglet for, but you could still have had the scene with them chasing the piglet later on without including that scene of her going to the building at all, it just didn’t seem to have much of a point to it when they completely left out that sick feeling from the book...
Also I’m kind of torn because I loved the shocking way that the show ended, but at the same time I felt like the credits sequence was a little too rushed. It would have been interesting to spend a little more time on Amma’s motives. It was certainly clear that she was acting out because of Adora’s smothering brand of mothering, but imo they didn’t make it clear enough why she choose to kill those particular girls. They didn’t need to include a detailed explanation from Amma spelling it all out, but just some kind of flashback to the past showing Amma’s jealousy of Adora’s involvement with Anna and Natalie and shooting them a look would have gone a long way. Also she convinced her friends to help her, but there’s no real explanation as to why they would agree to something that messed up, it felt like that needed filling in more, especially as the credits sequence passes by so quickly that many people probably missed their presence during the murders anyway.
I was a little taken-aback at how nihilistic it all felt actually, although I suppose I should have been expecting it from the book, but it was really tough to watch Amy’s character self-destructing on-screen. The book kind of ends it on a moment of redemption with Camille being taken care of by her editor and his wife, and at first I was disappointed that more of the ending from the book wasn’t included, but in retrospect it does make sense to instead end it on the dawning horror on Camille’s face that there is no escaping the sickness that has been passed down through three generations of women. Amma’s final words were perfect with the mention of their mother as really Adora and Amma were both characters who dealt with the trauma and powerlessness of their upbringings by taking pleasure in hurting other people, whereas Camille dealt with it in a different way by taking all of her pain and rage out on herself :(
And Alan was such a chilling portrayal of a completely useless father who seemed perfectly resigned to just standing by and letting Adora poisen another one of his children! It seemed like he was just choosing to be blind for most of the story, but then when he actively lies about Camille being home, it suggests that he really was aware all along of exactly what Adora was doing, yet he never lifts a finger to stop her. Perfect song choice at the end of episode 6 when he’s dancing with Amma
I really liked the way that the show dealt with the whole idea of worshipping perfect dead girls. We’re told that Adora took an interest in Ann and Natalie precisely because they were ‘wilful’ and reminded her of Camille, and yet the whole town worships them once they’re dead and can be remembered as perfect victims. Amma several times brings up her jealousy of Marian and how she can never be as good as a dead girl. And one of the most telling moments of all is when Ann’s father is telling Camille that it was better that his daughter be murdered than raped. And he’s telling this to Camille, someone who was gang-raped, someone who is covered in scars. It seems like she’s hated by Adora precisely because she insists on surviving as a damaged and ‘you're already ruined’ woman, rather than an idealised dead girl who can be forever remembered as perfect. Even the town play is the celebration of a woman going up in flames after she’s raped and violated, rather than having the misfortune to survive her ordeal and live on as a ruined woman, there are just so many layers to this show.
Oh and I loved Camille’s disinterest when one of the football players tries to apologise for his role in the gang rape, and how he’s haunted by it since he has daughters now (urgh). I loved that Camille doesn’t bother to absolve him as he’s clearly looking for, but just brushes him off with ‘guess we both got fucked that day’.
One small nitpick is that it seemed odd that Camille was given Alice as a roommate, even though that worked for the story obviously. But really it seemed like the worst possible idea to pair a young girl with someone who was the living embodiment of what she feared most about whether it’s possible to ever get over past trauma. There she was hoping that she would one day grow out of her problems, only to be paired with someone older who could pretty much only tell her that no, it won’t ever really get better :(
Another small nitpick is that they *really* underplayed how disturbing the pig scene was in the books, although part of me is relieved because I don’t think I could have sat through watching that kind of animal cruelty. But in the book it’s really clear how utterly revolting Camille finds it to see the pigs being strapped down in sow stalls and unable to move at all as they’re devoured by their offspring (they’ve been banned in the U.K. for a while now thankfully!), while she’s disturbed to witness Amma specifically going there to take pleasure in the mothers discomfort as the piglets are feeding. It’s there in the book to give you the first hint of how disturbing Amma can be, while in the show it had next to no impact at all, so I didn’t really see the point in including it? It mostly seemed to leave audience members speculating what Amma wanted the piglet for, but you could still have had the scene with them chasing the piglet later on without including that scene of her going to the building at all, it just didn’t seem to have much of a point to it when they completely left out that sick feeling from the book...
Also I’m kind of torn because I loved the shocking way that the show ended, but at the same time I felt like the credits sequence was a little too rushed. It would have been interesting to spend a little more time on Amma’s motives. It was certainly clear that she was acting out because of Adora’s smothering brand of mothering, but imo they didn’t make it clear enough why she choose to kill those particular girls. They didn’t need to include a detailed explanation from Amma spelling it all out, but just some kind of flashback to the past showing Amma’s jealousy of Adora’s involvement with Anna and Natalie and shooting them a look would have gone a long way. Also she convinced her friends to help her, but there’s no real explanation as to why they would agree to something that messed up, it felt like that needed filling in more, especially as the credits sequence passes by so quickly that many people probably missed their presence during the murders anyway.