On February 17, Apple TV+ presented the thriller “Scammers” starring Julianne Moore and Sebastian Stan. The script of the film was included in the so-called “Black List” of the best scripts of 2020. In the review below, we consider how successfully it was implemented and whether this film turned out to be tense for a thriller.

“Scammers” / Sharper

Genre crime thriller
Director Benjamin Caron
In roles Julianne Moore, Sebastian Stan, Justice Smith, Brianna Middleton, John Lithgow
Premiere Apple TV+
Graduation year 2023
Site IMDb

A young man named Tom has his own bookstore. Every day he can escape from the unbearable hustle and bustle of noisy New York to various fictional worlds that exist only on the pages of numerous books. One day, Tom’s empty bookshelf is visited by a pretty student, Sandra, who is looking for a gift for the teacher.

An interesting dialogue begins between young people. It becomes obvious that this is not their last meeting. Gradually, conversations about a dissertation on “African American Feminism in Contemporary Literature” and a mutual admiration for a copy of the first edition of “Jane Eyre” turn into romantic interest. It seems as if everything is happening like in a fairy tale, and both have found their true love.

But soon the butterflies in the stomach of the heroes must give way to a headache, because Sandra’s weak brother owes a large amount of money to some serious uncles. Naive Tom sees no other choice but to withdraw $350,000 from his parents’ account and pay the extortionists. The guy gives money to his beloved, and after this broad gesture, she simply disappears.

Upon closer examination of the authors of “Scammers”, it becomes obvious that people who managed to prove themselves primarily as creators of serial content worked on it. Screenwriters Alessandro Tanaka and Brian Gatewood are known as the authors of mostly comedic projects, and director Benjamin Caron had a hand in such successful series as “Sherlock”, “The Crown” and “Andor”.

This time, the former categorically refuse any hints of a comedic component, and the latter is forced to work in the format of a full meter. However, this tape inherited the structure of the story from the series format. The latter is divided into chapters, each of which introduces the viewer to a separate character and reveals his character and motivation. And at the same time, it raises the stakes and drags even more into the combination of plot arcs.

Karon’s creation tells about several highly professional con artists who rely on their own acting skills in their bad deeds. And all this in order to bite off a piece of the pie as much as possible. But at any moment the hunter can become a victim and vice versa.

“Swindlers” to some extent can be classified as a psychological thriller. But the tape is devoid of any deep psychology, because all the actions and behavior of each of the heroes lie on the surface. Therefore, such a genre definition will not be completely correct. Rather, it is an adventure thriller, which does not so much aim to keep you in suspense as it tries to constantly deceive the viewer. However, he does not always succeed in this.

The non-linear structure of the story is designed to confuse a little so that the next twists have a wow effect. But not all of them work, and some look too predictable. This is especially true of the final act, about which not a word more will be said, so as not to spoil the viewing with spoilers.

If you look at the film in general, it looks like a really good and interesting story, wonderfully played by great actors and well staged. The level of audience involvement here is noticeably high, because with each subsequent chapter, the viewer learns some new details.

Thanks to this, the plot not only does not sag and constantly develops, but also allows you to look at the general story from a different angle. All this means that even the leisurely pace of the story will not allow you to get bored.

Pros:
an interesting story, a well-constructed narrative structure, dynamic development of the plot, good attempts by the authors to deceive the viewer, a good cast, a high-quality soundtrack by Clint Mansell

Cons:
the predictability of some plot moves, a somewhat unclear ending, and there was also a strong feeling that with all the available components, an even more powerful genre product could be released

Conclusion:

“Scammers” are a great option for watching in the evening and clearly demonstrate what people are willing to go to, just to not work