Sharp Objects: Female anger, trauma and small town horror
“Don’t tell Mama.”
During the first episode of Sharp Objects, I already suspected that the series wouldn’t become what it appeared to be at first sight: a straightforward murder drama told from the standpoint of a somewhat unreliable protagonist. And I was right. The fantastic HBO series was an exploration of inherited trauma and female anger.
Journalist Camille Preaker (Amy Adams proving she’s indeed one of the best actresses of her generation) didn’t want to return to her home town of Wind Gap. Not even to solve the murder of two girls. But her editor-in-chief wanted it that way, so off she goes to Missouri anyway. She conceals and attempts to flee her past through the liters of liquor she downs and the long sleeves and trousers she wears even in the sweltering sun.
Her mother Adora (Patricia Clarkson) is obsessed with how she is perceived in the eyes of her fellow villagers, and as a result, she is ashamed of everything Camille does and has come to do in Wind Gap. After the murders, she is also extremely overprotective of Camille's younger sister Amma (Eliza Scanlan).
She did the same when Camille was young. Her sister Marian, who has long since died, was constantly ill, and Adora transferred that fear to her youngest child. But the dominant overprotective behavior clearly had an effect on both Adora's daughters.
Camille resisted her mother and Amma rebelled outside of her home by dressing defiantly, partying and drinking. But Camille was overwhelmed by all her internalized anger and trauma after her sister's death and began to drink and cut herself to cope.
And in this, we see a striking example of how women often deal with emotion, especially anger. Whichever way you look at it, women are still often underestimated today. The frustration that comes from this usually isn’t expressed out loud. We focus our frustration mainly on ourselves.
But conversely, there is also another problem. Men, even boys, are taught not to show "soft" emotions, such as sadness or fear. Which is why in some cases that’s channeled into anger and violence, as they think “real men” are supposed to.
It’s also the reason why nobody in Wind Gap doubts that a man killed the girls. they believe, a woman doesn’t possess the physical strength to pull out teeth with pliers, as happened with the girls. A prime example of gender prejudices.
But the anger of Camille (and Amma) comes mainly from trauma, and their mother is central to that. Strangely enough, that’s been a theme that has so far been discussed very little in films and TV. Women with "daddy issues" abound, but the relationship between mothers and daughters is at least as important - and can be equally as damaging.
In the vast majority of pop culture, a bad relationship with the father usually in (a straight) woman rears its head especially when she wants to enter into a romantic relationship herself.
But it first and foremost has an effect on the person themselves In the case of a bad relationship with a mother, as is the case with Camille and Adora, the focus is more on how that has changed Camille's personality. Relationships are part of this. Even in that area, there is a difference in representation.
A mother is the first and most important female role model in our lives. Consciously or unconsciously, we want her to be proud of who we are and what we do. And the view about when you are doing just right with your life sometimes conflicts.
Criticism or rejection by a mother is usually harder to swallow than that of someone else. This can also cause a lot of frustration. A cracked mother-daughter relationship can at times be loving, but often also hard and irreparably broken. And it's refreshing to see this covered in Sharp Objects.
The series was probably described by many as a slow burn because you don’t get the fast progress from plot point to plot point, where all developments are clearly pointed out or repeated. However, Sharp Objects gives you everything you need. Not a single minute, second is wasted. The unusual, flashy editing style hides more information than you will realize at first sight.
We get to know Camille thinks thanks to the flashbacks and dream images. Only afterward do you understand where each moment had its place. This isn’t a series that you can put on in the background while reading the newspaper or folding up the laundry.
Jean-Marc Vallée forces you to be attentive, to look beyond what you see. And that isn’t so difficult thanks to the pace and dosage of information. That's why Sharp Objects feels like a horror movie at certain moments.
Camille feels uncomfortable in the home town where she no longer belongs. That feeling is transferred to us, which at times really makes for uneasy viewing. All characters in Wind Gap seem to be the opposite of our guide to the town, to such a degree that it instantly creates the feeling something absolutely must be wrong.
The slow, hypnotic images of the roller-skating girls - who often seem to be the only people out in public - the close-ups and focus on Adora, Alan and his great love, his music installation, the women in Wind Gap...
With Camille, we get sporadic glimpses of what she hides, but all others remain a closed book. If you then find out that some of them do indeed have something to hide, you feel validated, but not taken aback or disappointed. Because Camille is our anchor point in this world, and she knows better than anyone that still waters run deep.
“I'm here, I said, and it felt shockingly comforting those words. When I'm panicked, I say them aloud to myself. I'm here. I don't usually feel that I am. I feel like a warm gust of wind could exhale my way and I'd be disappeared forever, not even a sliver of fingernail left behind. On some days, I find this thought calming; on others, it chills me.”
― Gillian Flynn, Sharp Objects
