[Review: IN THEATRES] THANKS FOR SHARING (6/10)

Uneven, messy, yet an interesting examination of addiction, Stuart Blumberg’s Thanks for Sharing is a Mark Ruffalo-led ensemble comedy about a group of sex addicts in recovery. Ruffalo plays Adam, a green packaging executive who has gone five years without sex or masturbation – and he’s not even married!! (Zing!) He’s mentor is Mike (Tim Robbins), who lives with Katie (Joely Richardson) – Mike; we learn had quite an abusive past. His son, Danny, also a recovering addict played by Patrick Fugit re-enters his life leading to that age old paradox: father and son hate each other because deep down they’re very much a like. 

Josh Gad and Alecia Moore (P!nk) play new comers (I just said..….oh, nevermind, I’ll keep this a family blog) – Neil and Dede. Neil is a self-destructive med student with a strange relationship with his mom (played by Carol Kane), he enjoys touching and looking at anything and everything. Dede feels like having sex instead of dealing with her problems. The goal of the group therapy is not to live like a monk as Robins tells Ruffalo, but to remain faithful – no sex outside of a committed relationship and no masturbation.

Ruffalo can’t trust himself, he carries a flip phone that’s not capable of sexting or web, has an assistant who puts parental blocker on his laptop, and asks hotels to remove the TV from his room. Unfortunately for him he meets the lovely Phoebe (Gwyneth Paltrow in a very sexy role) and they engage in a very real romance. Somehow though, the film doesn’t quite gel – Josh Gad is perhaps a little too over the top even if I have no doubt his performance and character is inspired by actual research into sex addiction.

Still Blumberg keeps an interesting and light touch: perhaps at times the tone gets away from him. The arcs of each story are a tad all over the place and while this material is rich it perhaps could use a little more focus. The performances are all quite good including Ruffalo and Paltrow who are excellent together. Patrick Fugit and Tim Robins work well as father and son and I enjoyed P!nk in her first role, she’s perfectly cast.

 

Thanks for Sharing has smart and useful moments – it turns out all addiction is a like, it’s a disease. Redemption is found even if it’s a tad artificial and the story beats all play as predicted including moments of relapse. An awareness of film’s construction and how it plays as it’s showing is a problem – great movies kind of just wash over you. Thanks for Sharing is more mature and thoughtful than many films currently in general release, but it feels a little too neat for a movie this smart.  

Screening: Dipson Eastern Hills

[Review: IN THEATERS] I'M SO EXCITED (7/10)

Arriving in the middle of the summer (verses Oscar season), Pedro Almodovar’s latest, I’m So Excited is hilariously weird. Known for dark humor and themes (especially his last film, the very strange revenge thriller The Skin I Live In) this is more upbeat. 

On the tarmac we meet two Almodovar regulars: Jessica (Penelope Cruz) and her lover Leon (Antonio Banderas) – distracted by the news of Jessica’s pregnancy Leon forgets to remove a brace that is sucked up into the plane’s landing gear and that’s when the trouble begins. I should tell you the film opens with a disclaimer “nothing in this films is based on reality” – here Almodovar is having a good deal of fun – think Murder on the Orient Express crossed with the kind of 1950s Dorris Day Romp with the bisexuality of one, Mr. Almodovar. It is true: the colors are more vibrant and the cabin more spacious than say, even Virgin Atlantic – Ebert said it best in his review of Almodovar’s Broken Embraces “a voluptuary of a film, drunk on primary colors…as it ravished me, I longed for a freeze frame to allow me to savor a shot”. All of his film films are visually beautiful (although The Skin I Live In takes it to a whole new level of insanity).

Bound for Mexico City the crew are all gay (or bisexual) including pilots Benito and Alex, stewards Ulloa, Fajardo and Joserra – while the first class cabin is full of – I think the polite word is eccentrics including another Almodovar regular Cecila Roth. Much of what happens is a bizarre joy including one shot (you’ll know it when you see it) this is one of this summer’s funniest. Upon hearing the flight is doomed and cannot land in Mexico City the crew takes to entertaining the first class folks, while they individually fall apart (a funny gag has each talking on the phone while the whole cabin can hear their conversation).

Knowing the film exists in an alternative universe frees it for all sorts of absurdity – the coach passengers are all drugged and are asleep, while the first class passengers are given other drugs to loosen their inhibitions – this is filmmaking without restraint and while at times it might not quite pull it off, I was always smiling (sometimes in disbelief). This is the kind of film that requires surrender: sure it’s a mess but Almodovar, after a series of intense films is having a little fun with his cast of regulars. 

Screening: Dipson Amherst, Dipson Eastern Hills