TIFF 2024 Review: Sharp Corner – “the performance of Ben Foster is riveting”

Courtesy of TIFF

At one point in Sharp Corner, Cobie Smulders‘ character, Rachel describes Ben Foster‘s Josh as “smug.”  Never before has there been a more perfect description of a person.  For Josh is one of the more ‘punchable’ characters I’ve encountered in a film in recent memory.  He’s the type of guy who languishes, he coasts, he is selfish, and he’s never without a tucked-in button-up and khakis, even when doing home renovations.  Yes, there’s something not quite right about Josh, and we’re about to witness just how far it goes.

As Josh, Rachel and their son, Max (William Kosovic) drive down the road, Mr. Sun cheerfully playing on the radio, they look the epitome of happy.  They’re heading towards their dream home, out of the city, with enough space for their family and away from the glare of streetlights.  On seeing it, Max remarks that the house is a ‘mansion,’ though he also says he doesn’t like his room.  He notes it smells funny, like a house that has been closed up for a really long time.  But that fresh country air is sure to help.  They all comment on how quiet it is away from the din of the city.  Often the only sound to be heard is that of a car passing on the road out front.

That turns out to be a significant noise, as the first night, a car loses control on the tight turn outside and crashes right into the tree in their front yard, sending a tire straight through their living room window.  The driver, a high school football star, dies on impact.  His family resurrects a small cross and roadside memorial as close to the property line as they can, a stark reminder of the loss that happened there.

Josh starts googling the deceased teenager, even while at work, learning all about him.  He gives an awkward toast to the young man at a dinner party with their friends – that’s where Rachel calls him smug.  She is more apt to try and move past the incident, it was an accident after all.  But then it happens again.  Josh starts an unhealthy obsession with trying to prevent the next accident and the next death.  While it may seem like he initially has the best of intentions, it’s just the start of his unravelling.

Based on a short story by Russell Wangersky, writer and director Jason Buxton (2012’s Blackbird), keeps most of our focus solely on Josh. Smulders takes a bit of a back seat but is no less important as her character Rachel helps to keep us grounded, a sensible woman who is a stark contrast to Josh’s obsession.  I love Smulders in pretty much everything she does (bring back Stumptown!) and things are no different here.

At first, Josh seems like a character that might garner some sympathy.  He seems to have it all, a loving wife, a son, a nice home and a reasonable job, even if he did recently get passed over for a promotion.  But that doesn’t seem to be enough for him.  Foster is no stranger to meaty roles, but here he leans right in.  Josh is a character that eventually becomes incredibly unlikable, and Foster does nothing to change this, instead he just embodies that quiet smugness.  He’s that duck treading water – all calm on the outside, but underneath you get the impression there is just this fast peddling urgency to everything Josh does, even if he doesn’t articulate it.

As Josh implodes his own life for … the rush of the next crash? Some sort of saviour complex? It’s hard to completely understand the psychology of him, a man who feels a desperate need to be a hero.  Is it the attention he needs? Is it the adrenaline? It is one of Sharp Corner‘s strengths perhaps that they don’t delve into the why so much, a complex investigation to be sure.  But you’re apt to form many questions while watching this film and it’s no less frustrating that many go unanswered.  Not the least of which is why no one from the city has stepped in to fix this stretch of poorly designed road?!

Buxton throws us right into the intrigue in this film, and the sense of unease is only intensified by the score from Stephen McKeon.  Yet, the director also cleverly makes the sound of every car that passes this house evident.  You start to lean into hearing the pitch, the speed, the potential squeal of the tires as each car rounds the bend in a need to predict when the next accident will happen.  That sound is a threat, and you feel it as such.

As can sometimes happen when adapting a short story, it can be hard to flesh the material out to a full 110-minute feature, and this started to run out of gas, so to speak, becoming repetitive.  Yet, the performance of Foster is riveting enough that you’re always brought back into the narrative.  This film is a bit morbid, and won’t be to everyone’s tastes, and certainly Josh can be an exceedingly frustrating character to follow (see the first paragraph).  But, I was left feeling that overall Sharp Corner is a smart, and captivating watch, even as I was shaking my head at all of Josh’s incredibly bad life choices.

Sharp Corner had its world premiere Friday, September 6th at the Toronto International Film Festival.  For more information, head to tiff.net