There are moments in life that break us to items, however not shortly, like a hammer hitting a vase — in a sluggish however unavoidable approach, like a crack in a window. It is solely a matter of time earlier than the glass will give approach, leaving you wrecked and broad open to a world that retains on shifting regardless. Sharp Nook is about such a second, the place an inexplicable occasion slowly shatters the psyche of a median household man who beforehand thought himself content material.
Written by Jason Buxton and Russell Wangersky, Sharp Nook is a lean however gripping psychological thriller than explores worry, nervousness, and the way a societal double commonplace can go away males in a novel drawback on the subject of processing trauma. So who higher to headline this film than Ben Foster? This American actor has delved powerfully into these themes in earlier roles, such because the wild-card brother of Hell or Excessive Water, the anti-social father of Go away No Hint, and the hardened soldier of The Messenger.
Ben Foster performs a father in disaster in Sharp Nook.
Credit score: Elevation Footage
Gentle-mannered, middle-aged Josh McCall (Foster) is a loving associate to his mental spouse Rachel Davis-McCall (Excessive College‘s Cobie Smulders) and a playful mother or father to his younger son Max (William Kosovic). Their first evening of their new house in suburban Canada, Josh gently tucks his child into mattress, assuring him that there is nothing to worry on this unfamiliar setting. Subsequent, Josh and his spouse christen the lounge with some hasty however spirited intercourse. However then catastrophe strikes.
Earlier than the opening title card even hits the display, a automotive’s tire flies by way of the massive show window, shattering glass and capturing previous Rachel’s head earlier than touchdown with a terrifying thud. A automotive has crashed dramatically of their garden. Whereas Rachel races to assuage their crying baby, Josh stands looking the window, pantless and powerless, his naked ass dealing with us whereas he gazes upon a horrifying new actuality.
Everybody within the household is coping with this stunning incident in their very own methods. Rachel avoids dialog round it and buries herself in caring for her baby, who’s discovering bits of busted reflector as he performs within the yard. However this leaves Josh with nobody to speak to about his fears. He had thought-about himself the household’s protector, but it surely was solely dumb luck they too weren’t harm that evening. So, Sharp Nook follows his slow-burn quest to reclaim a way of management, first by way of understanding the reason for the accident, then by educating himself on life-saving instruments like CPR. However extra deadly crashes on the titular flip make this more and more tough, pushing Josh into disturbing behaviors to reclaim his id.
Sharp Nook‘s deep-set empathy makes its horrors hit more durable.
Credit score: Elevation Footage
Usually, when media discusses poisonous masculinity, they’re addressing macho males who refuse to acknowledge their very own feelings. Ben shouldn’t be that man. He is determined to speak about what occurred, however he cannot discover a place the place he feels secure to take action. His spouse does not need to hear it. His buddies aren’t ready to go from wine suggestions to trauma-dumping, and he does not belief a stoic psychiatrist, who has a canine named Drake.
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So, like lots of people grappling with nervousness and post-traumatic misery, Josh throws himself into motion. He creates initiatives to stop additional crashes, and when that fails, he’s determined to be ready to avoid wasting a life when the necessity arises. Perhaps that may restore his sense of self? Perhaps that may save his household from falling aside? Foster’s nuanced efficiency — stress rippling beneath his pores and skin and wish gleaming by way of his eyes — makes this terror really feel without delay extraordinary and achingly widespread.
But as empathetic as Sharp Nook is, binding us to Josh in moments he cannot share with anybody, it does not paint his spouse as an uncaring nag or a cliched villain. She too is grappling with this jolting realization, not solely that their dream house is a suburban nightmare but in addition that demise could be random, and silly, and in your entrance garden again and again. Although hers is a a lot smaller function, Smulders comfortably shoulders the character work of Rachel, her cautious phrases hitting with precision. Her tone shifts from direct and aggravated, when the 2 adults are alone, to guarded but slicing once they’re with their son. Collectively, they create a pair that feels actual — and actually getting ready to splitting up.
Sharp Nook packs a punch with out packing in gore.
The script is crisply realized, keenly charting Josh’s downward spiral as he surrenders every part to his determined have to reclaim a way of energy in a world that is made him really feel impotent and futile. Buxton, who additionally directs, properly trusts in Foster and Smulders to floor the movie’s drama. It helps he retains the house’s aesthetic clear and comfy in cool blues and grays, so the carnage exterior — with its streaks of yellow dome lights and crimson reflectors and blood — is all of the extra jarring. But the deaths are largely off-screen, or once they’re proven, are executed so with a mindfulness in the direction of graphic bodily hurt.
Buxton is not looking for to sensationalize these moments. He provides us simply sufficient to grasp why Josh cannot shake them. So, we too wrestle to focus as others discuss to him about mundane issues like faculty pick-up and work assignments. However how far would we stroll in his footwear? That is the terrifying query Sharp Nook asks in a 3rd act that’s ruthlessly plotted.
Centered so intently on the inside turmoil of its ego-ravaged hero, Sharp Nook is leanly executed. However Buxton and Wangersky appears to lose religion of their viewers within the second act, providing a sequence the place a psychiatrist mainly spells out what Josh goes by way of (although she’s not knowingly speaking about him). Regardless of this detour, the finale regains momentum. Finally, a wise premise is poignantly dropped at life by Foster and Smulders, making for a psychological thriller that’s nerve-rattlingly tense and a household drama that’s unapologetically gutting.
Sharp Nook was reviewed out of its world premiere on the 2024 Toronto Worldwide Movie Pageant. It’s now in theaters.
UPDATE: Could. 8, 2025, 12:26 p.m. EDT This overview was first printed on Sept. 6, 2024, as a part of Mashable’s protection of the 2024 Toronto Worldwide Movie Pageant. It has been up to date to mirror its theatrical premiere.
