THANKS FOR SHARING (2013)

Genre: Drama/Comedy
Director: Stuart Blumberg  
Cast: Mark Ruffalo, Gwyneth Paltrow, Tim Robbins, Josh Gad, Joely Richardson, Alecia “P!nk” Moore, Patrick Fugit
RunTime: 1 hr 52 mins
Rating: M18 (Sexual Scene and Coarse Language)
Released By: Shaw
Official Website: http://thanksforsharingmovie.com/

Opening Day: 26 December 2013

Synopsis: From Academy Award® nominated screenwriter and first-time director Stuart Blumberg (THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT) comes a sharply comic and deeply moving look at a very different kind of modern family – the haphazard family forged by three men trying to navigate life, love and the emotional landmines of New York City while recovering from addiction. Academy Award® nominee Mark Ruffalo, Academy Award® winner Tim Robbins and Broadway star Josh Gad (“The Book of Mormon”) anchor a stellar ensemble cast in a story about the kind of friends who, no matter how wild their rises and falls, always put each other back together again. The three men – including an over-achieving environmental consultant (Ruffalo), a married father with long term success but daily challenges (Robbins) and a wise-cracking, out of control ER doc (Gad) – highlight the various stages in the process of conquering addiction and the community one needs to survive. On their own, they are each are smart, charming and completely broken . . . but together, they come to realize, they might have a real shot at happiness.

Movie Review:

The topic of sex addiction on film will forever by synonymous with Steve McQueen’s searingly intense character study ‘Shame’, but Stuart Blumberg’s directorial debut offers a much more palatable alternative for viewers who prefer their dose of reality served with some humour. Balancing laughter and tears in the same way as his critically acclaimed ‘The Kids are All Right’ did, Blumberg paints a poignant picture of individuals struggling with temptation on a daily basis, funny and affecting in equal measure.

Like most such ensemble dramas, this one is constructed around a central character and a small constellation of supporting ones. The lead here is Adam (Mark Ruffalo), a hotshot environmental lawyer who is now five years ‘sober’, which in sex-addict terms means five years without sex or masturbation. Terrified of relapse, he hasn’t dated a woman in as long, but that’s about to change when he meets Phoebe (Gwyneth Paltrow), a cancer survivor and fitness fanatic whose previous boyfriend’s alcoholism has made her averse to addicts in general. It is for this reason that Adam hides his addiction, which of course is one of the film’s turning points later on.

Besides Adam, there’s his sponsor Mike (Tim Robbins), whose estranged son Danny (Patrick Fugit) is struggling with a problem of drugs. Mike’s upset that Danny doesn’t want to follow his 12-step programme for kicking the habit, while Danny still can’t get over his father’s previous behaviour as a sex and alcohol addict. There are unresolved familial issues here, not least with the addition of Katie (Joely Richardson), Mike’s wife and Danny’s father who puts up with his aphorisms despite having presumably contracted her Hepatitis C from her husband’s past infidelity. 

To a lesser but still significant extent is Neil (Josh Gad), a young former-ER doctor whose obsession with food and porn gets him fired from the hospital after he is caught trying to videotape up his female supervisor’s skirt. Adam might be his sponsor, but Neil finds greater solace in the opinionated, tattooed and spiky-haired Dede (Alecia Moore, or better known as the singer Pink), his complement in the way that she can only relate to men by sleeping with them. Neil and Dede are members of the same 12-step group as Adam, which Mike heads as the wise elder among them.

Although the fraught romance between Adam and Phoebe is the centre of Blumberg’s script, what is truly admirable is the dignity he accords to each and every one of his characters. The tone may be deliberately lighter in parts, but at no point does Blumberg lose sight of the fact that his characters mirror real-life individuals struggling with a very real illness with even more sober consequences. He doesn’t shy away from portraying the difficulties that his characters face, instead finding and emphasising the humanity and heart in their challenge to live better lives.

A film like this also rises and falls by its performances, and in this case, gets a major boost from some award-winning calibre actors. Ruffalo is especially great in a role that requires him to convey both intensity and vulnerability, never for once overplaying or feeling the need to overplay the theatrics in order to get his audience’s attention. He shares a nice rapport with Paltrow, but the actress is overshadowed by Moore’s arresting chemistry with Gad. Indeed, the breakout star from Broadway’s ‘The Book of Mormon’ is a revelation here, especially in striking the right tone for some of his character’s more reprobate moments. Robbins is his usual dependable self, and between him and Gad have the honour of being in the film’s most redemptive moment.

And as a first-time helmer, Blumberg wisely gives the cast enough room to shine on their own strengths. He also seems to be on comfortable ground directing his own script, which in the way that it tries to find gentle chuckles amidst a tough subject is not quite different from ‘Kids’ and therefore tonally similar. Granted it isn’t as insightful an exploration as ‘Shame’, but it is still sharply written, confidently directed and brilliantly acted, and a worthy substitute that deserves its own appreciative audience. 

Movie Rating:

(A funny and affecting exploration of the tough subject of sex addiction that strikes a nice balance between laughter and tears)

Review by Gabriel Chong