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
