I once had an embarrassing beginner’s French mix-up with “frottage” and “fromage,” though I’m certain that on the spectrum of sexual kinks, there’s someone for whom that’s no mix-up but a parmesan-wheel-dry-hump spot of heaven. Which is to say: When it comes to sex we all have our weird ways. And yet, despite making sex addiction its topic, Thanks for Sharing isn’t interested in exploring those idiosyncratic erotic preferences that sometimes explode into obsessions.
In his feature directorial debut, Stuart Blumberg (an Oscar screenwriting nominee for The Kids Are All Right) and his co-writer Matt Winston split the narrative between three sex addicts in the same support group: Adam (Ruffalo) is five years sober, but unsteady in his first post-treatment relationship with a cancer survivor (Paltrow); his sponsor, Mike (Robbins), is still married to his high school sweetheart, but has a troubled relationship with his son (Fugit); and Neil (Gad), a socially stunted doctor newly in treatment (under court order) for “nonconsensual touching,” finds a friend in an earthy fellow sex addict (Moore, better known by her pop-star moniker, Pink).
Top-heavy with healing bromides and romantic-comedy beats, the split narrative is problematic, flinging the film in too many directions to settle on a sharp focus or consistent tone. The early parts skip between cuddly and clownish, until the film cliff-dives into the far darker terrain of a relapse. It’s a bold and certainly credible move, but the execution is something of a belly flop. Thanks for Sharing isn’t really about a disease, only the cure, and that bias makes it a plausible picture of the Friend of Bill community-based recovery, but kind of a sham as a portrait of actual human beings.
This article appears in September 20 • 2013.
