Operating as a double entendre for both the literal titular roadside placement and the relationships within Jason Buxton‘s tense drama, Sharp Corner lays focus on the vehicular and emotional torture put forth by a series of fatal crashes that take place on a suburban front lawn that kisses the edge of a tight curvature on a passing road.
Based on Russell Wangersky‘s short story (he shares screenwriting credit Buxton), Sharp Corner centres around couple Josh and Rachel (Ben Foster and Cobie Smulders, respectively) and their dream home purchase in the Nova Scotia countryside. Seemingly starting a new life for them and their 6-year-old son, Max, the two plan on renovating their lush space into a modern dwelling they can happily call home.
Within the first 10 minutes of the film, Buxton and Wangersky have set up the dynamic between Josh and Rachel, presented their still-passionate marriage, and, just as the title cuts to screen, the violent dilemma they’ll contend with across its 110 minutes. As they finish christening the floors of their living room, a car tire smashes through their window, with the reveal that a car has crashed on their front lawn, resulting in the gruesome death of the car passengers.
Josh and Rachel can’t seem to come to an agreement regarding their movements going forward – do they move or fix the problem? – which only gives way to a multitude of other issues that starts to break their marriage apart. Rachel is, understandably, terrified for the safety of their son, but part of the appeal of their house was that it had such an expansive yard for him to play on. Do you deprive him of such, or make the right moves to put up a safety rail? But will a safety rail necessarily save him from witnessing anything potentially traumatic?
Sharp Corner‘s script opens up a multitude of interesting conversations relating to what the viewer would do in such a situation, and whether or not those conversations lean into Josh’s mentality remains to be seen, as his mind starts to fixate on becoming a neighbourhood saviour of sorts, learning CPR in the event that another crash will take place. Josh almost wills such accidents to occur, which only drives Rachel further away as she sees the sanity of her husband disintegrate.
As much as Sharp Corner presents so many interesting avenues to explore, perhaps its strongest asset is how it shapes Josh and Rachel as individuals. Foster is no stranger to embodying the type of characters who find themselves tightly wound, and here his internal conflict sends him to locales that manifest in a variety of psychologically disturbing ways that you suspect even he was unaware existed within him. Similarly, Smulders, though working with less screen time, manages to transcend her character’s surface level by creating a woman who, though in love with her husband, can’t excuse behaviour that threatens their son. It’s too easy to simply state Rachel as an unlikeable character, as we can see her struggle between acting as a woman, a mother, and a wife.
Despite Sharp Corner‘s masculine energy, some audiences may be quite taken with the deconstruction of masculinity and emasculation that Buxton presents. Josh clearly harbours the intention to be a good father, but he seems to lack the capacity to be so, and the film’s temperament of breaking apart such a virile archetype is quite fascinatingly at odds with its rugged personality.
Though there’s a bizarre sense of twisted purpose festering within Josh’s “heroic” mind, Sharp Corner is never as bombastic as its premise suggests. It’s a psychological look at misplaced valiance that may take the scenic route towards its dedicated destination, but every stop on the way doesn’t take away from its own importance and delight in not necessarily answering the questions it asks.
THREE AND A HALF STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
Sharp Corner screened as part of this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, which ran between September 5th and 15th, 2024. For more information about the festival, head to the official site here.
