Monday, June 23, 2014
Thanks for Sharing is a movie about sex addiction. Just watching the trailer was enough for me. I have been there. I was married to a sex addict, and lived with one, unknowingly for 8 years. I know what it?s like to wake up in the middle of the night and see your husband with the phone in his hand and you know he is talking to someone ? and it?s not you! Sex addiction is a very real addiction ? just as pervasive and as damaging as drugs or alcohol and apparently it is rampant in this country. According to statistics, 40 million people log on to pornography websites every day, not every year ? every day. That is a lot of people preoccupied with other than the present day world. Sexual addiction is best described as a progressive intimacy disorder characterized by compulsive sexual thoughts and acts. Like all addictions, its negative impact on the addict and on family members increases as the disorder progresses. Over time, the addict usually has to intensify the addictive behavior to achieve the same results. Addictions of all kinds result from deep, inner, unresolved pain or trauma. The addiction becomes the daily, even hourly preoccupation rather than face and work through painful experiences.
For some sex addicts, behavior does not progress beyond compulsive masturbation or the extensive use of pornography or phone or computer sex services. For others, addiction can involve illegal activities such as exhibitionism, voyeurism, obscene phone calls, and worse.
According to Paltrow, even though the movie features a serious subject, it has its comedic moments ? and I?m glad as this is a rough subject. The first half of
Thanks for Sharing plays out in a netherworld that isn’t quite comedic but isn’t quite serious enough, as if director Stuart Blumberg is treating his own movie as a patient who might have a relapse at any minute. The second half of the film lays on some fairly heavy dramatic scenes involving physical violence and emotional upsets, all carefully prepared for in the writing and in the acting, and you can admire the skill that has gone into the shaping of these scenes while also rejecting their ultimate aim. The more we know about sex addiction, the more able we are to spot this behavior in those closest to us. I was completely unaware of the behavior in my ex-husband. His odd behavior was puzzling and at the time, I did not have a context for it. Who knew that a professional man could be involved in such behavior.
http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/thanks-for-sharing-2013