Created by author Mark Protosevich (“The Cell,” “I Am Legend”), “Sugar” follows personal investigator John Sugar (Colin Farrell) whose job and obvious ardour in life is, merely, discovering misplaced folks. It is a job he is excellent at, nevertheless it’s additionally a job that will get him in bother, significantly together with his good friend and handler Ruby (Kirby Howell-Baptiste), who thinks he pushes himself too exhausting and will get too near his circumstances. However Sugar’s not about to cease serving to folks, whether or not meaning giving some cash to a homeless man on the road or pursuing kidnappers and lacking folks to the ends of the earth.
Sugar’s willpower brings with it a status for getting issues finished, and that pulls the eye of legendary film producer Jonathan Siegel (James Cromwell) who reaches out with a case very near his coronary heart: His granddaughter Olivia (Sydney Chandler) is lacking, and he is relying on Sugar to seek out her. As a result of simply wanting on the lady’s image is sufficient to remind him of somebody he as soon as misplaced, Sugar agrees regardless of Ruby’s objections and dives into the case. The clues are scant, which implies he has to spend the early elements of the investigation leaning on Olivia’s household — from her rockstar stepmother (Amy Ryan) to her baby star brother (Nate Corddry) and her seemingly chilly producer father (Dennis Boutsikaris), all of whom have secrets and techniques of their very own.
Rooting the early investigation within the layers of Olivia’s prolonged Hollywood household permits Protosevich to luxuriate in sure detective story tropes whereas additionally branching “Sugar” out into territory all its personal. As you’d count on from a hard-boiled story, narrated by Sugar’s personal reserved, quiet voice in between conversations, all of the secrets and techniques of the Siegel household begin to emerge, forming items of a puzzle that oh-so-slowly coalesces into an even bigger image with Sugar on the middle of all of it. It is a satisfying riff on a tried-and-true piece of the subgenre, however on this case, it isn’t the entire story.
Within the grand custom of personal eye tales, “Sugar” additionally focuses a few of its thriller on the title character, what drives him, and what will get to him when he tries to get sleep at night time. What makes somebody like Sugar so dedicated to serving to others, so preternaturally decided to unravel every case? Clearly, there are secrets and techniques there, however the present takes its time attending to them. For some viewers, the pacing out of all of it may show a bit irritating, however when you’re prepared to match the present’s tempo and luxuriate a bit in its character work, you will end up misplaced within the folds of its ever-growing narrative tapestry, and you will not be capable of get sufficient.