There is quite a discrepancy among how we deal with certain addictive behaviors. Spend all your time buying dolls? “Oooh, you must be a collector!” Spend all your energy doing drugs? “Go to jail, crackhead!”
Thanks for Sharing is about addiction. It bills itself on sex addiction, but the truth is pretty much everybody in the film has an obsessive-compulsive nature; we’re simply divided neatly into the groups of those getting help and those not. Thanks openly asks, “is sex addiction a thing?” It is. And in fact, it’s a fairly tough addiction because you’ll get no sympathy for it in our world, and, unlike drugs and alcohol, temptation is, literally, everywhere. For those who crave orgasms, Manhattan is like Disneyland. And that’s not because consensual partner sex is necessarily easy to find – more like sex is constantly being advertised. We meet Adam (Mark Ruffalo) praying. His structured behavior belies a secret. Outside, there is nothing but temptation: billboards, shops, miniskirts; if you want crack, you actually have to know a guy. If you want to see something sexy in the big city, all you have to do is open your eyes. Adam lives without TV or the internet. Presumably, he has internet in his office, but nothing at home. Of course, I’m puzzled by his roadtrip behavior – he’s like a guy who brings nothing on a airplane and then gets bored. You KNEW you were getting on a plane, sir. Why did you bring nothing?
Adam has a meet cute with Phoebe (Gwyneth Paltrow) while skewering grasshoppers for roasting. Ok, as meet-cutes go, that rocks. Their relationship is wonderful until we realize there’s something wrong with her, too. Mike (Tim Robbins) is Adam’s sponsor. He’s incredibly unforgiving for a guy who has battled temptation. Mike fails to welcome his estranged son (Patrick Fugit. We have a Patrick Fugit sighting!) because he only sees him as an addict. Do addicts attract addicts? Do addicts beget addicts? Big fat “yes” from what I see.
We get off easy (ha! See what I did there?) with Adam and Mike. Neil (Josh Gad) is a challenge. We meet him deliberately rubbing against an attractive stranger on the subway; moments previous, he spies and approaches her as if little Neil has some sort of homing device. Later, Neil gets fired when caught filming up his boss’ dress. Oh, that’s low. Not quite sure it’s Dylan Baker in Happiness low (I can’t picture Dylan without thinking about that role), but it’s very hard to sympathize with a guy like that. The movie forgives him; his 
weakness attracts Dede (Pink), who turns out to be his salvation, and he hers. Question is: are you OK with him being saved? For me, I was more upset by the fact that the cast member with the biggest issues –the one who is out-of-control from the onset– is played by both the decided non-star and the only fat f*** around. Think Tim or Mark is gonna have the filming upskirts compulsion? No sir. Adam gets to show weakness by dating Gwyneth Paltrow. Uh oh, she’s in stockings, a garter, and see-through panties. Oh, the horror!
Thanks for Sharing makes you question your own obsessive behavior: if a woman passes and I turn my head to spy her ass, does that make me an addict, or just a douche? I think we can all agree that if you’re at the point where you’re planting secret spy cameras for sexual purposes, you need help. But that grey area of how you use the internet … I like the internet, do I need a 12-step program? Thanks seems more instructional than interpretive.
There once was a man into porn
Who discovered relationships torn
He takes every day
But one brief stray
Is quite enough to earn scorn
Rated R, 112 Minutes
D: Stuart Blumberg
W: Stuart Blumberg, Matt Winston
Genre: Obsessology
Type of person most likely to enjoy this film: Addicts. Apparently, we are people, too.
Type of person least likely to enjoy this film: Prudes
