Always good for picking up my spirits, "Sharp Objects" gave us another dandy pick-me-up with "Ripe". Yep, Mama Adora tells her daughter, Camille, she smelled ripe. Adora threatens Chief Vickery's job if he pushes too hard on her daughters (one is "dangerous", the other "in danger") and requests her Calhoun Day (a long Wind Gap tradition, set up for the community on the grounds of Alan and Adora's grounds) be cancelled because the killer taking out girls hasn't been caught. Adora doesn't take Alan seriously when he brings it up to her that he lost a daughter, too, not just her. Lots of domestic bliss in this family. Every since, solitary time Camille arrives home and encounters Adora she is reminded of her difficulties as a child, of how she is just a disappointment. Camille might get an apology from Amma for being a prick the other evening when hanging with Detective Willis but Adora ever coming to her with an "I'm sorry" isn't likely. Speaking of Willis, he desperately wants to share information with Chief Vickery but this contentious relationship won't be an easy case marriage despite some co-existence. Vickery simply seems disinterested in involving Willis in anything he does while trying to find the killer. Willis, on the other hand, is trying to secure anything he can from Camille, promising to share with Vickery. Camille and Willis go to a popular hangout in the woods, a shed with dirty pornographic pictures stuck on the walls, reminding her of past experiences there with local boys (Willis seems to learn from an elusive Camille that she was on the receiving end of possible rape). Camille moves Richard's hand into her unzipped pants to pleasure her so they have become a bit cozy with each other after a lot of sexual tension and evasive maneuvers to avoid discussing the murders in town. And Camille joins some of the ladies in town (including Perkins' Jackie, kind of a blunt, sarcastic acid-tongued local who joins in the chorus regarding the suspects involved in the murder of the girls), absent Adora who claims her rose-bushes "hand injury" will be keeping her from the gathering, as they gossip about town.
Adams and Clarkson do deservedly claim a majority of the accolades for their acting work, but Scanlen is a real find as the manipulative Amma. Amma cuts on a rap song and hugs her mom. Amma gathers with her friends as they giggle about John Keane, eyeing a fixed picture mocking him. Amma is nowhere to be found when Camille arrives after learning that she was friends with the murdered girls (hanging out with them at the shed) when speaking to John at the local watering hole. Amma with her friends portrays women of war in a theatrical play as the goofoff guys in her class fail to take the work seriously...she seems "interested" in their teacher's melancholy, holding his hand and wanting to offer someone to talk to (or perhaps more?). Amma, seemingly naughty and promiscuous, knows how to also convince her mother she's a doll and a teacher she's a "friend". Camille is the damaged sister she can both poke fun at and be close to. It does seem Amma weaves a grand play using those in her orbit as characters to move about like pieces on a chessboard. I have no doubt she'll be the one who proclaims, Checkmate.
This show is dreary and glum. So it won't be an appetite all viewers will consider palatable. But it is damn well acted and the director knows how to light the mood for every single scene. And why would such a dark story and stark characters be lit with bright colors...the dark reds and auburns, yellows and greens, are the kind of palate this material seems meant for. The Soderbergh atmospheric effect. Characters half-lit, distanced emotionally from each other, an undercurrent of deep-seething torment and rage...the production/direction colors this appropriately.
Adams and Clarkson do deservedly claim a majority of the accolades for their acting work, but Scanlen is a real find as the manipulative Amma. Amma cuts on a rap song and hugs her mom. Amma gathers with her friends as they giggle about John Keane, eyeing a fixed picture mocking him. Amma is nowhere to be found when Camille arrives after learning that she was friends with the murdered girls (hanging out with them at the shed) when speaking to John at the local watering hole. Amma with her friends portrays women of war in a theatrical play as the goofoff guys in her class fail to take the work seriously...she seems "interested" in their teacher's melancholy, holding his hand and wanting to offer someone to talk to (or perhaps more?). Amma, seemingly naughty and promiscuous, knows how to also convince her mother she's a doll and a teacher she's a "friend". Camille is the damaged sister she can both poke fun at and be close to. It does seem Amma weaves a grand play using those in her orbit as characters to move about like pieces on a chessboard. I have no doubt she'll be the one who proclaims, Checkmate.
This show is dreary and glum. So it won't be an appetite all viewers will consider palatable. But it is damn well acted and the director knows how to light the mood for every single scene. And why would such a dark story and stark characters be lit with bright colors...the dark reds and auburns, yellows and greens, are the kind of palate this material seems meant for. The Soderbergh atmospheric effect. Characters half-lit, distanced emotionally from each other, an undercurrent of deep-seething torment and rage...the production/direction colors this appropriately.
