X
- 2013
- R
- Lionsgate Films
- 1 h 52 m
- 2013
- R
- Lionsgate Films
- 1 h 52 m
Summary Four sex addicts in various stages of recovery struggle to form meaningful relationships.
Directed By: Stuart Blumberg
Written By: Matt Winston, Stuart Blumberg
- 2013
- R
- Lionsgate Films
- 1 h 52 m
- 2013
- R
- Lionsgate Films
- 1 h 52 m
Thanks for Sharing
54
6.6
Where to Watch
Summary Four sex addicts in various stages of recovery struggle to form meaningful relationships.
Directed By: Stuart Blumberg
Written By: Matt Winston, Stuart Blumberg
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 38 Critic Reviews
54
37% Positive
14 Reviews
14 Reviews
55% Mixed
21 Reviews
21 Reviews
8% Negative
3 Reviews
3 Reviews
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 38 Critic Reviews
54
37% Positive
14 Reviews
14 Reviews
55% Mixed
21 Reviews
21 Reviews
8% Negative
3 Reviews
3 Reviews
It’s surprisingly wise, funny and affecting, thanks in part to a sensitive script, and in part to a strong ensemble cast.
Though Blumberg treats the topic with admirable frankness, the film’s insights would’ve had more impact if he wasn’t so quick to hop to the next storyline whenever matters get especially thorny.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 47 User Ratings
6.6
51% Positive
24 Ratings
24 Ratings
40% Mixed
19 Ratings
19 Ratings
9% Negative
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 47 User Ratings
6.6
51% Positive
24 Ratings
24 Ratings
40% Mixed
19 Ratings
19 Ratings
9% Negative
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
" Funny , Intimate , real, amazing effort from Writer Director Staurt Blumberg ". Mark Ruffalo stars again in another movie with the co writer " The Kids are All Right " Written & Directed by Stuart Blumberg. thanks for sharing has a great cast , wonderful performances by Mr. Ruffalo , Paltrow , Tim Robbins ( which i do not know who he is.) , with Josh Gad and Alicea Moore ( which is know as pink ) They all have intimate , relationships on the screen thats what i love about this movie ( even though i am not a sex addict which i know blumberg decidated this film to but i still enjoy it ). Grade A+
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I have attended Sex Addict's Anonymous and Sex and Love Addict's Anonymous meetings. As someone who has been in those rooms, as uncomfortable as it is to admit and as it is to be there, I can say for sure that this movie was made for and by people who understand "the disease." People are critical of the film on grounds of things like plot progression, characterization, acting, soundtrack etc. That, to me, is a waste of review. The real questions viewers should ask is:
-What is sex addiction? Why has our society come to believe there is a such thing?
-Are 12 step programs helpful for people who identify as sex addicts?
-What causes people to "act out" impulsively in sexual/romantic ways?
-What is the relationship between addiction and free will?
These kinds of deeper questions get touched on in the film in a funny and fun, dramatic way. I resent some of the bad reviews. I think people were mostly uncomfortable with the component of addiction and how everyone SHOULD be able to relate, as we all have our compulsions in our own ways. And we all know some creepy "sex addict" types in our lives. The film SHOULD speak to everyone on some deep level, but people are too caught up in wanting a non-formulaic, ground-breaking film that, what, breaks all the rules and offers something new and exciting to the genre of dramatic comedy. What boring expectations for film watching. Why not be more introspective and see how you can relate and what you can learn from it. You'll never get a film anything like this. They're not going to keep making films about 12 step programs for people with sexual compulsion problems.
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Although the characters are three-dimensional, the simultaneous crises and last-act resolutions are a little too neat for a movie about the messiness of life.
The Kids Are All Right writer Stuart Blumberg's first directorial effort is a frothy affair with typically strong turns from Ruffalo and Paltrow.
The characters are mostly likable, and despite some comic sallies the film takes a compassionate stance toward them. But it feels like a glossy, overly neat take on what should be an explosive topic.
Too much of what happens as the characters undergo their various brushes with failure and redemption feels predetermined, slapping what aims to be a much savvier film with a debilitating touch of the formulaic.
Director Stuart Blumberg’s movie, which features a surprisingly starry cast, comes off as superficial and trite.
I liked this movie alot, I thought it was funny while at the same time being realistic to the struggles people deal with in sex addiction and what the recovery process looks like. Mark Ruffalo plays it genuinely and understatedly, I think Gwyneth Paltrow as Phoebe was my favorite, there are some very racey scenes with her and Mark.
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In one of the many meetings showcased in the film Thanks For Sharing, one recovering addict describes their sex addiction as “trying to quit crack, while the pipe is still attached to your body”. Though I have never personally experienced, nor have I had the experience of meeting an openly admitted sex addict, I’m sure many young people today wouldn’t see it as a ‘disease’ as described in the movie, but perhaps more of a blessing.
The last time the subject of sex addiction and the portrait of a nymphomaniac was explored was Brandon in Steve McQueen’s intolerably alluring Shame. There is no doubt that Shame is the better of the two films, exploring a darker, grittier and more unabridged account of a sex-feinding businessman.
Thanks For Sharing, shortly following its fade to black, will spark conversations about what the film did well and why. The film is a very interesting and real take on a subject that I, along with many people I’m sure, have little or no knowledge about.
The film follows three generations of sex addicts; Mike (Tim Robbins) a husband, father and recovering alcoholic who acts as the sole patriarch of the strenuous twelve step program; Adam (Mark Ruffalo) a handsome businessman who is just celebrating his five year sobriety milestone; and Neil (Josh Gad), a doctor who has recently started attending the meetings, using it as a platform for free bagels with no real intent to recognize his addiction. As the progress (or lack there of) of each recovering addict takes a balanced and healthy routine, Mike, Adam and Neil all experience a major shift in their habits when a new person decides to enter each one of their lives.
The best part of Thanks For Sharing are these new additions that create a large wave of ripples in each of the sex addict’s lives and allow for the most potential of the narrative and character study’s to shine. For Mike, his world is turned upside down when his estranged, drug-addict son Danny (Patrick Fugit) returns home after fleeing the home years previous with his mother’s jewelry (Joely Richardson) to score some crack. From the moment Danny walks through the door, we question his sobriety and whether or not he was really able to rehabilitate himself, without the help of meetings and others, a technique his father swears by. For Adam, the new entry in his life is Phoebe (Gwyneth Paltrow), a sexy, racy health freak with issues of self-confidence and a past of her own. Phoebe reintroduces Adam to a lusty, freaky world of pleasure that he is hesitant to embrace. For Neil, whose amateur sex issues present the biggest problems of the film since they are so new, meets Dede (Alecia Moore or most famously known as pop-sensation P!nk) a sex-crazed, ticking time bomb who’s thoughtless decisions and dark sexual past gives purpose and hope for Neil, the ultimate sexual daydreaming wanderer.
There are some dark moments in Thanks For Sharing, as well as an abundance of feel-good, genuinely hysterical dialogues between characters, touched with instances of heavy drama. The film itself is a tonal misfire with some of the worst music composition and manipulative soundtrack decisions that takes you completely out of the amped up cinematic drama.
Initially released at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2012, it’s quite apparent why the film has failed to find an audience. Regardless of its talented cast line-up, Thanks For Sharing is like unsatisfying foreplay; arousing and promising, although by the end, leaves you soft and hungry for more. The R-rating, along with the mis-marketed/non-glamourized look at the sticky subject through the trailer, and the grim direction that the film almost unexpectedly veers at times, really confuses moviegoers whose reaction can be described as nothing less than cinematic blue balls.
The film does delve into familiar territory; Strong family-drama, unconventional love story, and unformulaic buddy/comedy, Thanks For Sharing seems to share its worth of knowledge of genres. Unfortunately, the interesting questions and scenarios that the film presents get lost in the quest for a real identity. The film will present some interesting questions once audiences leave the theatre, but for the most part, the underlining question that will overshadow all other questions will be whether or not you like the film itself.
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“Thanks For Sharing” is a film about addiction--sex addiction. When the film opens we meet Adam (Mark Ruffalo) who has 5 years of recovery, his sponsor Mike (Tim Robbins) and Neil (Josh Gad) who is court ordered to attend the sessions but doesn’t take it seriously until he loses his job as an ER medic. Neil has problems with his mother Roberta (Carol Kane), while Mike’s son, Danny, (Patrick Fugit) was a drug addict who was treated badly by his father when he was young and Mike’s wife, Monica (Joely Richardson) has learned how to deal with her husband’s problems by concentrating on herself.
The film revolves around three couples from the long married Mike and Monica to Adam ready to have his long purposely delayed sexual experience after meeting Phoebe (Gwyneth Paltrow) and the friendship between Neil and Dede (Alecia Moore aka Pink), the latter wilder than any of the men.
As in any film about addiction there are victories and defeats though in “Thanks For Sharing” there are more of the former. The scenes involving Tim Robbins, Joely Richardson and Patrick Fugit, especially those between the two men, are full of electric. Josh Gad and Alecia Moore offer the comedy relief with both doing excellent work. The first scene of Ruffalo with his shirt off brings back the 50s and 60s when actors like William Holden has to shave their chests of all hair--obviously that rule doesn’t apply anymore.
Ruffalo gives a warm, sensitive performance while Paltrow, as a cancer survivor, comes across as cold and unfeeling with the role begging for a warm, girl next door actress. By the way the film Academy may have to give an Oscar for the actress who gives the best lap dance and strip show if there are any more in addition to Paltrow here and Jennifer Aniston in “We’re The Millers”--right now Aniston wins!
With a screenplay by Stuart Blumberg, who also directed, and Matt Winston, “Thanks For Sharing” really doesn’t bring anything new to an addiction story except here it is about sex instead of drugs and/or alcohol so there are more sexual situations shown. Mark Ruffalo, Tim Robbins, Josh Gad, Patrick Fugit and Alecia Moore all do excellent work and hold your interest as does the photography of New York City by Yaron Orbach.
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The trailer for this film is one of the most misleading in recent memory. It looks like a smart comedy about sex addiction. Bit the ONLY amusing scenes are in that trailer. The rest of this film is all drama, as it follows 4 addicts (Mark Ruffalo, Tim Robbins, Josh Gad & Pink) in various stages of recovery. They struggle with each other and their personal relationships in predictable patterns. The performances are strong (Pink was a revelation), which makes the rather pedestrian script a bit more bearable. Still, this almost feels like a "recruitment video" examination of the addiction.
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extremely disappointed in this film, eagerly awaited for, first off every cinema near by only had one showing of it a day, which says it all, cinemas had no faith in it, secondly on walking into the screening there was only three people inside this being the 2nd showing upon its release, so a total of five people including myself and my partner, later to discover the only reason we were even watching it, was for P!nk. the best part was the end, wasn't funny badly scripted and no story line whatsoever, how rubbish it was, was laughable. its wont be out long.
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Production Company
Class 5 Films,
Olympus Pictures
Release Date Sep 20, 2013
Duration 1 h 52 m
Rating R
Tagline Life is a journey you never have to take alone.
Awards
Champs-Élysées Film Festival
• 1 Nomination
Guild of Music Supervisors Awards
• 1 Nomination
