Thanks for Sharing

Stuart Blumberg's Thanks for Sharing, a smart, Shame-lite ensemble dramedy centering around three men in recovery for sex addiction is one of the more surprising films of the year.  In its affably low-key, albeit slight way, Blumberg has fashioned a film that's nearly better than it has any right to be, showcasing the daily struggles of recovery with a refreshing honesty and earnestness, infusing it with a nimble and disarming charm and rarefied sense of humanity.  Thanks for Sharing also points the surface the problematic ways in which movies are often marketed-- the trailers and promotional materials gloss over the heavier weight of the subject matter in lieu of pretty movie stars like Mark Ruffalo and Gwyneth Paltrow bantering drolly with the tease of naughty, R-rated imagery and words flutter about-- it was presented as a disposable sex comedy about sex addiction.

And yet the movie, which Blumberg co-scripted with Matt Winston, is a sobering and melancholy ensemble comedy of manners that vibrates in the convivial camaraderie of the men in different stages in their Twelve Step process.  The most refreshing component of Thanks for Sharing is in its sharing, where the group of addicts circle around and openly talk, and yet it feels different here than in the countless iterations of the recovery process that's been canvased throughout the decades on film and television.  The acting is never IN ALL CAPS big with whooshing and histrionic fits, the writing isn't punctuated with big moments and clever word plays to mash everything together-- it's quiet, it's low-key, slightly humorous and impacting because it isn't played to the last row.  In short, it may be the least heavy-handed showcase for the most heavy-handed of subjects.  All of which makes the characters, their evolutions and struggles all the more surprising, alert and nearly moving.