Sharper (2023) review

Trickery galore: bookstore manager Tom (Justice Smith) meets Ph.D. student Sandra (Briana Middleton) and falls in love with her, but then it goes back in time to reveal that Sandra's actually a con-artist trained by belligerent Max (Sebastian Stan), who in turn is involved with Madeline (Julianne Moore) ... and she's in a relationship with billionaire Richard Hobbes (John Lithgow).  While I begrudgingly respect it for at least trying something different and keeping the audience on alert, it's still structurally unsound with entirely too many "twists" and a completely preposterous ending no one with an active brain could have anticipated.  I get wanting to seem "clever" but it requires masterful balance (like Fincher's The Game or Mamet's House of Games) and this sabotages itself ... and it's also kind of smug about it.