Sharp Objects

At first glance, Sharp Objects seems like an algorithmic dream. If you liked Big Little Lies, here's the same director, Jean-Marc Vallee. If you liked Gone Girl, here's the same author, Gillian Flynn. If you liked Amy Adams in anything, here's Amy Adams. One could be forgiven for perceiving this eight-episode pay-TV adaptation of Flynn's first novel as a round of prestige-TV bingo, and, well, it is that. It's also confronting, compelling, challenging and very, very good.

Flynn displayed a real aptitude for blending compulsive, deliciously pulpy storytelling (replete with vivid characterisations) and incisive depictions of gender politics in Gone Girl, and that's evident in this adaptation of her first novel, which also uses a crime story as the framework for its true mystery — a woman's history and identity.

That woman is Adams' Camille, an emotionally fragile journalist dispatched by her editor to her tiny hometown of Wind Gap to report on the murder of one girl and the disappearance of another. Upon her return, Camille is remembered fondly by many as the town's prodigal daughter - a great beauty destined for great things.

But Camille's past is littered with pain and trauma — it's a past she drinks heavily to avoid facing — and her being back in Wind Gap, a town with its own deep reserves of pain and trauma, constantly threatens to bring everything back to the surface.

Using its murder mystery as the hook, Sharp Objects quickly and deftly draws one in, Vallee, Flynn and showrunner Marti Noxon all adept at setting an intriguing scene and introducing fascinating players. What gradually emerges, however, is a story of long-buried secrets and long-repressed feelings that has one both dreading and eagerly awaiting the next revelation.

Sharp Objects is studded with rich female roles, and the fine cast rips into them with intelligence and vigour (former Home and Away star Eliza Scanlen makes a star-making impression as Camille's precocious half-sister), but admirers of Adams will be thrilled to see her continue and even surpass her magnificent recent run of great work with a performance of extraordinary clarity and complexity.

It'd be worth watching Sharp Objects for her alone; fortunately, there's plenty here to keep one well and truly enthralled.   

Sharp Objects premieres Monday July 9 on Foxtel channel Showcase.