Thanks for Sharing 2013

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: Thanks for Sharing is never quite crazy or funny enough to transcend its "disease-of-month" template. Read more

Stephen Holden, New York Times: Most ... of the movie never transcends a screenwriting formula that makes you uncomfortably aware of the machinery driving it all. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: This comedy is cringe-inducingly lame and the dramatic turns are visible as far in advance as utility poles on the prairie. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: It means well, but finally, it's a lighthearted film that is ultimately weakened by too much star wattage. Thanks For Sharing would have been better as a documentary. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: Wait, wasn't this supposed to be a comedy? Or, if it's a drama, shouldn't these characters be more developed? Doesn't Ruffalo deserve a better movie? Don't we? So many questions; so little to see. Read more

Peter Debruge, Variety: This feel-good look at a condition many refuse to acknowledge as a disease skips the self-pity and gets right to the heart of the issue: namely, the very real problems sex addicts have in creating interpersonal relationships. Read more

A.A. Dowd, AV Club: Works much better as an act of earnest education than as, well, comedy or drama. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: Blumberg's film spends its running time showing us that sexual addiction is a disease like any other, and it does a convincing job. It's elsewhere that the film falters. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: "Thanks for Sharing" is what Variety would call a "twelve-stepper"-an engagingly didactic drama about addiction and recovery. Read more

Ben Sachs, Chicago Reader: At least most of the cast is appealing, with Mark Ruffalo, Gwyneth Paltrow, Josh Gad, and Alecia Moore (better known as pop singer Pink) delivering the uninspired dialogue with relative finesse. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: Most of all, there's Ruffalo, who in his scenes with a very good Gwyneth Paltrow, plays a man who, with heartbreaking vulnerability, is straining to normalize himself. It's a major performance in a minor movie. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: Blumberg juggles comedy and drama here before going predictably dark (as addict tales tend to do), but he's more circling his subject than nailing it down. Read more

Chris Nashawaty, Entertainment Weekly: This tone-deaf misfire can't decide whether it wants to be a broad comedy doling out raunchy slapstick laughs or a serious drama about our porn-saturated age of sensory overload. Read more

Laremy Legel, Film.com: The film can't quite find its footing as either a drama or a comedy, and near the end it's actively sliding off the rails. Read more

David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter: A compassionate and frequently funny look at sex addiction that rolls out too many pat developments to muster much depth. Read more

Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: "Thanks for Sharing" ultimately feels empty. It doesn't share enough. Read more

Randy Myers, San Jose Mercury News: A movie about disease and addiction should be messy and unruly. And while it happens so quickly and piles on a lot of drama, it's essential for audiences to venture right into that horrible center. Read more

Rafer Guzman, Newsday: "Thanks for Sharing" has several nice moments and understated insights, but it never quite gets to the heart of its subject. Read more

Anthony Lane, New Yorker: Be warned: viewers may experience a violent urge to shake the characters, one by one, and tell them to get a life. Read more

Trey Graham, NPR: Blumberg is an efficient, easygoing storyteller. Read more

Linda Holmes, NPR: I was pleasantly surprised. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: Solidly grounded performances from almost all the cast members wind up playing second fiddle to navel-gazing. Read more

Michael Sragow, Orange County Register: The arduous trail to recovery from sex addiction gets cushioned with soap opera suds and romantic comedy shtick in Thanks for Sharing. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: Thanks for Sharing is an odd film: The sex-addict business is treated with an uncommon level of detail and honesty. Read more

Richard Roeper, Richard Roeper.com: After the bleak brilliance of 'Shame,' this is an almost sunny look at sexual addiction. Almost. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: Thanks for Sharing is all over the place trying to find a tone, but it knows where its heart is. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: I am powerless to control my addiction to this kind of talky, theatrical, pseudo-therapeutic picture, which doesn't mean - as with other kinds of addictions - that I'm entirely happy about it. Read more

Walter V. Addiego, San Francisco Chronicle: A well-meaning, sporadically entertaining and ultimately formulaic look at the struggles of a group of recovering sex addicts. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: The character arcs intersect so schematically that at times the film feels like a game of 12-step bingo. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: "Thanks for Sharing" is redeemed by a reasonably honest script and strong performances. Read more

Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times: First-time director Blumberg does a fine job and makes some brave choices. Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: Thanks for Sharing might best be described as being like Steve McQueen's sex-addiction drama, Shame, if it were rewritten by Neil Simon at his most schmaltzy. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: It's frankly exhausting to keep up with these neurotic over-sharers, who are neither serious enough to care about nor humorous enough to laugh at. Read more

Alonso Duralde, TheWrap: Substitute his sex addiction for, say, alcohol or cocaine, and it's a tale that's been told countless times. Read more

Sam Adams, Time Out: Blumberg doesn't exempt his characters from responsibility, nor does he keep himself at arm's length. He's right there with them, one day at a time. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: Though the film is tonally inconsistent, the overall empathy with which characters are presented, and some topnotch performances, help blunt the story's stumbling moments. Read more

Inkoo Kang, Village Voice: A winsome mix of funny, harrowing, and smart, it's most commendable for making characters who are addicted to bad behavior-and who refuse to blame themselves for it-somehow exceedingly sympathetic. Read more

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: It's surprisingly wise, funny and affecting, thanks in part to a sensitive script, and in part to a strong ensemble cast. Read more