Susan Granger’s review of “Thanks for Sharing” (Olympus Pictures/Class 5 Films)
Make no mistake: sex addiction is the topic here, as three men are determined to overcome their compulsive sexaholic dependence in the midst of the visual temptations of Manhattan.
After completing five years in celibate recovery, sensitive Adam (Marc Ruffalo), an environmental consultant, is urged by his sponsor, Mike (Tim Robbins), to start dating again and try to establish intimacy. At a food-adventurers dinner, he meets preening, phony Phoebe (Gwyneth Paltrow), who refuses to taste the roasted bugs. She’s a breast cancer survivor and anorexic fitness fanatic whose previous boyfriend was an alcoholic. Despite her alleged wariness of men with addictive tendencies, she strips down to lacy lingerie and lap-dances for him, explaining that she’s essentially a very sexual person and needs to express that side of herself After eyeing the results of her mastectomy, Adam
makes a remark about a ‘booby prize.’
Are you squirming yet?
A recovering alcoholic, Mike has his own problems believing his estranged son Danny (Patrick Fugit), a former drug abuser who returns to their home in Brooklyn to make things right with his father and mother Monica (Joely Richardson).
Then there’s Neil (Josh Gad), a chubby, young ER doctor with an extensive porn collection who enjoys groping girls on the subway and gets fired for using his smartphone to spy under the skirt of a colleague. He’s arrested and ordered by the court to show up for the 12-step group counseling, where he’s sponsored by Adam. Neil gets friendly with a fellow addict, tattooed, spiky-haired Dede (Alecia Moore, a.k.a. pop singer Pink), whilst coping with his stereotypically adoring Jewish mother (Carol Kane).
Written by Matt Winston and director Stuart Blumberg (“The Kids Are All Right,” “Keeping the Faith”), this earnest serio-comedy about uncontrollable urges inevitably evokes memories of Steve McQueen’s “Shame” (2012), which explored the same territory in a far more stern and somber tone.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Thanks for Sharing” is a predictably unsatisfying and
uncomfortable 3 – so banal that it’s a total turnoff.
