SHARPER with Julianne Moore is More for Dumb and Dumber

The scam artist drama starring Julianne Moore and Jonathan Lithgow is now in theaters and screening on Apple TV.  The movie is set in NYC filmed in the cinematographic glow that Woody Allen showers his love affair for Manhattan.  The movie is broken into segments prefixed by the name of the person the story's perspective  focuses.  The initial story is about Tom (Justice Jesse Smith) a handsome, 30 something male working at a cramped but cozy book store.   A lovely young woman, Sandra (Briana Middleton) comes in searching for a book.  Without taking his eyes from the book he's reading, Tom ambles to the exact location to extract the book.  When he hands her the book, he takes one look and is taken in by Sandra's beauty and brains.  But, he's clumsy asking her to dinner which she declines. Tom  berates himself, needlessly.  As he's closing, she's lying in wait for him and their date and courtship commences.  Within months, the two seem to have found the real deal in love with each other.  Their bliss goes slightly amiss when Sandra shares her woes.  Orphaned at an early age, she and her brother were placed in foster homes.  Her brother's situation was much harsher and he became a drug addict.  Her brother turned to her for money to pay his dealer.  Sandra is not able to save him by paying off his $350,000 debt.  Sandra is stunned when Tom becomes her savior.  Tom not only has the money, he insists on giving it to her.  Sandra's story follows next.  Her appearance is starkly different from the demur ingenue and NYU PhD. student.  Of course, nothing is as it appears or as one is led to believe.  The main characters and their stories are all interrelated including Madeline (Juliette Moore) as Tom's step-mom, Max (Sebastian Stan) as Madeline's son and Richard (John Lithgow) as Tom's father.  The attractive cast, particularly Middleton and Smith are appealing,  Moore and Stan are cool and slick.  But, the con is problematic and pitted with holes.  If you're willing to buy the grifts, all set in New York, there's a bridge I'd like to sell you.  My advice is not to fall for this faulty plot.  At least don't drop a lot of dough.  Just watch it on TV.  I wondered why the movie was being released simultaneously in theaters and screening on TV.  Enigma solved.