To watch “Sharp Corner” feels akin to witnessing a car crash in slow motion. There’s a bleak inevitability to the proceedings and a cruel voyeuristic streak to how we’re called to not look away.

The comparison is apt, of course, considering how central car accidents are to the tale of an even-keeled suburbanite who becomes needlessly obsessed with stopping (or at the very least helping) the inordinate number of crashes that happen at the treacherous corner street right in front of his new home. Led by an against-type performance from Ben Foster, writer-director Jason Buxton’s languidly paced psychological thriller about domesticity and masculinity may be handsomely mounted but ultimately strikes an all too hollow tone to land its kicker of a final shot.

The promise of a new house is the chance to make a home. That’s what Josh and Rachel (Foster and Cobie Smulders) hope...