Six degrés de séparation

This movie is absolutely stunning. Very original in plot, colors, and directing, with a superb soundtrack. It discusses how we are all no more then 6 degrees of separation from eachother. Yet this aspect is only the plot. In reality it adds another perspective on our daily lives. Through Ouisa Kittridge it teaches us how mundane our everyday events are, that we all need something drastic to happen to bring us out of sleepy everyday into a fun, exciting, new being. We are equated to John Kittridge who lives his self involved life not noticing the people around him - not the hippy couple in the park who happen to be artists, nor his kids away in college, not even his wife's true personality. Through Ouisa we are shown how we all look for something new to enter our lives, even a sham like Paul can turn us around, give a new meaning to the mundane. Of course the tango musical theme combined with extensive monologues by Paul forces viewer to dance with and listen into the characters, almost becoming one. (9+/10)

A writer at the centre of one of the most elegant, entertaining, thoughtful and soulful tales to come out of Hollywood in a long, long time. John Guare's children are based , it seems, on real life people. How lucky for Guare to have found the great Fred Schepsi as their perfect foster father. Will Smith plays a man without identity, choosing one for himself, with such care, with such gusto that everyone remains enthralled, first of all us, the audience. Stockard Channing's Ouisa discovers a new side to her own self in front of our eyes. It is a performance of guts and beauty. Donald Sutherland's Flan is a first for the movies, we've never met a character like him on the screen. The scene in which he listens to Will Smith's Paul explain his thesis is a triumph. We see Flan falling in love. It is chillingly beautiful. Then, of course, the aforementioned Will Smith, he moves with a borrowed self confidence, like his character and it's impossible not to love him. He has the elegance of a Cary Grant and the charisma that we all now associate with Will Smith. I only regret that he didn't go for the kiss. That would have completed the shocking sum of all his parts. I love this film. I love John Guare for writing it. I love Schepsi (he's an old love of mine "Cry in Dark" "Plenty") The superb editing, the wonderful tangoish score and the work of the production and costume designers makes "Six Degrees of Separation" one of the most rewarding movie experiences. On this terrible summer of World at Wars, New Batmans and some other horrors, do yourself a favour. Rent the DVD and stay for dinner at home with the Kittredges.

I don't understand why the public and the critic didn't celebrate "Six Degrees of Separation". It is a very, very good and unusual dramatic comedy about, among other subjects, the high society life and the ambitions. I liked this film very much and I highly recommend it. However, there is a hollow ending and so I gave it a 9 out of 10. The same way a must-see.

The pampered rich folk of Manhattan get skewered alive in this elegant adaptation of John Guare's hit play. Based on an amazing true story, the film concerns a wealthy Manhattan couple (Stockard Channing and Donald Sutherland) whose lives are turned upside down when a young black man (Will Smith) who claims to be a friend of their children's drops in after having been attacked in the park. He says he's Sidney Poitier's son, cooks up a gourmet meal, quotes "Catcher in the Rye," and endears himself to this couple. As the film progresses, one stunning event after another occurs, culminating in a beautifully cathartic ending. Sutherland gives one of his best performances, but it is the luminescent Channing who steals the movie. It is so nice to see this gifted actress -- looking more beautiful than ever -- in the lead as opposed to playing someone's best friend. Her impeccable timing and innate charm elevate an already dazzling screenplay to heights unimaginable. "Six Degrees of Separation" is as witty, thoughtful, and relevant as any film made the entire decade.

A film that had its moments, like that wonderful monologue about Catcher in the Rye, or the distress someone feels about how real experiences dissolve into future anecdotes. It also provides a nice bit of satire about the wealthy, their entitled offspring, and their delusions about their own racial tolerance.

Unfortunately, it's also one of the more affected scripts, with dialogue that ventures beyond just stagey (obviously coming from a play) and into exaggeration. There is real pathos at the bottom of this story, but it's undercut by so much of what we see not feeling real.

"Mom told me you were a rotten lover and drank so much your body smelled of cheap white wine!" a son bellows at his father over the phone. "I was so happy, I wanted to add sex to it," the con-man says in a sing-song voice to explain why he brought a lover up to the rich couple's apartment. There are many other examples of groan-worthy lines.

I have to say, the film also doesn't do a very good job with its title concept, that we're separated from everyone on the planet by six other people. It's just stated as something a character has read, without an example or further discussion. It's in there I suppose as a way of highlighting the empathy the wealthy should be feeling for the young man who has tried to wheedle into their world, as "close" as the human hive is supposed to be, but that felt more forced than satisfying to me.

I liked the performances from Will Smith and Stockard Channing, and I liked the creativity (dare I say imagination) it showed in the second half. Once we know there's a con across multiple people going on, a more conventional film would have gone through the drama of what was being stolen (like maybe a switcharoo of those expensive paintings for fakes) and how the guy would get caught (following a cat and mouse game with a savvy detective). In this one, we don't know at all what direction it will take. Overall, kind of an odd film, but worth seeing.