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THANKS FOR SHARING – The Review – We Are Movie Geeks

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THANKS FOR SHARING – The Review

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As we ease into the winter months (and the year-end awards season), the studios are delving into more serious subject matter such as this film’s look at addiction. Now we’re not into substance abuse like the classic THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM (drugs) or THE LOST WEEKEND (alcohol), but it does encompass a form of abuse. You wouldn’t know from the deceptive marketing which make it look like a glossy “rom-com”, but THANKS FOR SHARING deals with sex addiction or SA (with the word “sharing” in the film’s title you’d think they could “share” a bit more info), a controversial concept (one character even questions whether SA is a real thing, as do many researchers). There have been a few films dealing with this subject. Blake Edwards, years after his classic alcohol abuse film THE DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES, touched on SA with THE MAN WHO LOVED WOMEN and SKIN DEEP. Two years ago director Steve McQueen, along with actor Michael Fassbender, explored this world in the lauded SHAME. Does this current film shed a new light on the problem or is it a form of (“wink wink”) exploitation to juice up a romantic comedy/drama?

SHARING’s focus is on three men who are part of a sex addiction support group. Neil (Josh Gad) is a flippant young single doctor who is ordered by the courts (on the commuter train he has “boundary issues” with female passengers) to attend the meetings. His sponsor is Adam (Mark Ruffalo) a successful single rep for a recycling AKA green company who’s about get his “five years in the program” chip. And his sponsor is the hard-nosed married father and home renovation company owner Mike (Tim Robbins), a fervent believer in the program. Soon each of them will be tested. Mike’s formerly drug-addicted twenty-something son Danny (Patrick Fugit) unexpectedly moves back home, much to mom Katie’s (Joely Richardson) delight and Mike’s concern (is he really not using?). Neil hits rock bottom, but he may have a way to get back on track when he becomes a reluctant sponsor to a desperate young woman named Dede (Alecia Moore AKA  pop music star Pink). Adam is conflicted when he meets the beautiful Phoebe (Gwyneth Paltrow) at a swank party. After being alone so long and battling temptation is he ready to enter into a romantic monogamous relationship? Mike gives his enthusiastic approval, but Adam is more than a bit unsure. How will she react when she learns of his addiction? The film follows their stories as they try to bring order to their complicated lives and help each other stay on the straight and narrow.

This film greatly benefits from having one of the strongest acting ensembles around. Ruffalo’s Adam may be even more twitchy and anxious than his take on Bruce Banner (who also had an inner demon) in last year’s MARVEL’S THE AVENGERS. He’s strong, calm, and confident with his support group, but we see his inner struggle as he walks to work (seems that the subway train is a danger zone for the group members). Hey a recovering alcoholic can steer clear of bars and liquor stores, but there’s temptation everywhere outside his home (no TV or computer with internet there). Lovely ladies stroll every street alongside all the sexualized advertising imagery: billboards, newsstands, retail store windows, even the sides of public busses! The thought of a new romance amps up his anxiety. His eyes darts about as his mind races about whether to reveal that turmoil. The cause of all that agita is Paltrow (Banner with Pepper Potts? Sorry Tony!). The role of Phoebe seems like a step or two back for the Oscar winner. It’s a “rom com” part she might have done a decade ago. She has some inner conflict (an odd food  and exercise relationship is mentioned briefly), but she seems to be here as a prize dangled before the tormented Adam. This is most evident in the scene that the studio is ruthlessly exploiting, an evening which turns into a Frederick’s of Hollywood fashion show as Phoebe struts and gyrates in front of Adam while wearing only her black undergarments. Perhaps this was a way for her character to  reclaim her sexuality after a brush with death (the big C!) or a chance to be playful, but considering her beau’s conflicts it comes off as more than a bit cruel. And exploitive. Like Jennifer Aniston recently in WE’RE THE MILLERS, she seems to be saying, “Yeah, I’m a mature woman. And, unlike Jen, I’ve had a couple of kids. But I’m still a romantic lead! See!”. Entertainment Weekly recently picked up on this disheartening trend and this sequence proves it.

Speaking of cruel, Robbins’s Mike has lots  of that to spare. Especially in dealing with his estranged son, although we get a hint of that in early scenes with Neil (Mike has a good BS detector). His son can’t grasp why he has more compassion for guys in his groups (like Charles played by the always excellent Isiah Whitlock,Jr) than for his own son. It appears that Mike has traded in his two addictions (sex and booze) for two others (step programs and support groups) and resents his boy for going it alone (or as Mike calls it “white knuckling”). Robbins gives this “papa bear” a “holier than thou” attitude that we hope will finally be brought down to Earth. To offer some balance, the producers bring in Gad for clunky comic relief as the sweaty, doughy exasperated Neil who, like Phoebe, also deals with food issues (his inhaling of pastry is more revolting than funny). Perhaps we’re meant to think of him as a lovable rascal in the early scenes, but I thought Neil truly deserved jail time in addition to the group. I wondered if the film makers wanted Jack Black and he fortunately turned them down (opting for challenging, different roles like BERNIE, instead of this retread). And since he’s out of shape we must endure a “high-larious” barfing bit along with a cringe-worthy scene with the gifted Carol Kane wasted as his smothering ethnic mother. Ugh! Luckily for Gad, he’s paired with the delightful Moore in a breakthrough dramatic role. Her Dede is sassy, tough, and compelling. She actually helps Neil more than he helps her as a sponsor. She gives an energetic, surprising natural performance. I hope she takes another acting break from the concert venues and recording studios very soon. There’s also great work from Richardson as the mother who seems to be literally torn down the middle by the men in her life and Fugit as one of those men who has us questioning  his motives and intent along with Robbins’s Mike.

Director/co-screenwriter Stuart Blumberg (co-writer of THE KID’S ARE ALL RIGHT) does his best to give the film a steady pace, but can’t avoid some cinema clichés. Soon after Adam and Phoebe meet cute (at a weird apartment BBQ party) we get a montage of them getting to know each other, silently chatting and laughing as a bland pop tune plays). A later date scene set at a park tries for adorable but comes off as mind-numbing and cloying, as does a scene in which they have Dinner together via laptops. For the support group scenes we get very brief (maybe ten seconds) monologues from unidentified characters. Later as one character “falls off the wagon” and another almost succumbs we get lingering ominous close-ups accented with thriller-music cues. And for all the hand-wringing, sex addiction here comes off as a “rich person’s problem” or an aggravating inconvenience. They can afford to indulge in the hookers, skin magazines, and internet porn. Unlike in the gritty, really “down and dirty” SHAME, we know these fellas’ will bounce back pretty much unscathed. And without a true harrowing sense of danger it trivializes the suffering and its consequences of this behavior. I hope that next time the film makers and cast will have something much better to share.

2.5 out of 5

THANKS FOR SHARING opens across the country today and screens exclusively in the St. Louis area at Landmark’s Tivoli theatre

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Jim Batts was a contestant on the movie edition of TV's "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" in 2009 and has been a member of the St. Louis Film Critics organization since 2013.