Review: ‘Thanks for Sharing’ Seeks Sympathy for Sex Addicts

Are you a sex addict? Do you know a sex addict? Would you like to know more about the subject, but wish someone would make a movie about it, rather than publish another book?

According to Stuart Blumberg’s new film Thanks for Sharing, sex addicts need understanding and support, just as much as someone who is addicted to alcohol or narcotics. Even more so than the often-picturesque Manhattan locations, sexual addiction forms the landscape against which a three-pronged story plays out, as three generations of men deal with the life-long consequences of their addiction.

Blumberg, making his directorial debut, also shares a screenplay credit with Matt Winston. The world that he’s created is, for the most part, a kind and lovely and well-heeled Manhattan, in which the three men and their friends, family, and associates can work out their personal issues with dignity, class, and humor. (Yaron Orbach’s cinematography is gorgeous.) Back in 2000, Blumberg’s script served as the basis for the delightful Keeping the Faith, which also focused on three people working out a thorny romantic issue with religious overtones.

This time, however, Blumberg is preaching to the converted. Apparently, the film does not want to give any credence to naysayers who might question if sex addiction should be treated the same as alcohol or narcotic dependency, so any doubts are acknowledged in one or two lines of dialogue and then dismissed out of hand. OK, fine, but that leaves us with a straightforward regurgitation of recovery themes among well-to-do and well-established people. There is little effort to establish characters who exist apart from their addiction; according to the film, they are entirely defined by their sex addiction and deserve sympathy because of their affliction.

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