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List Price: $14.98 | | Label: MGM (Video & DVD)
Salesrank: 16382
Released: August 15, 2000 |
| Our Price: $3.00 |
| Used Price: $2.90 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
'the ultimate movie about the New York cult of class (Glamour), this rich and challenging cinematic treat (Playboy) is both a laugh-out-loud comedy and a biting social commentary about the separation between the 'haves and the 'have-nots. Will Smith gives a mightily impressive debut, Donald Sutherland is perfection and OscarÂ(r)-nominated* Stockard Channing moves from brilliance to somewhere above and beyond brilliance (CBS-TV) in a story that's all the more amazing because it's true! Posing as the son of Sidney Poitier, Paul (Smith) deftly penetrates the world of art-dealing urbanites Ouisa and Flan Kittredge (Channing and Sutherland). But as Paul's web of dropped names and near fame begins to unravel, he provides his hosts with much more than just theultimate cocktail party anecdotehe sets in motion a series of events that will alter the course of their lives forever. *1993: Actress
Description of Six Degrees of Separation:
John Guare's hit Broadway play--about an Upper East Side couple who gets bilked by a young black man claiming to be Sidney Poitier's son--receives a terrific screen translation in this film by Fred Schepisi. Though the play was discursive and episodic, Schepisi, working from Guare's adaptation, makes it all flow like a fascinating evening listening to friends recount something that happened to them. But the story itself is also intriguing for the disparity it reveals between the wealthy, the would-be wealthy, and the have-nots yearning to be rich. Stockard Channing and Donald Sutherland are exceptional as the couple who open their home to a young man they believe is a friend of their children (to whom they barely speak); Will Smith is fascinatingly glib as the young man, who claims that his famous father is casting a film version of Cats and offers his hosts roles as extras in the film. Smith finds the heartbreaking core of this character and Channing is haunting as a woman looking to make a connection, even with a confused young con artist. --Marshall Fine
Six Degrees of Separation Reviews:
Purchase Review for Six Degrees of Separation 
2009-11-09 - I was very pleased with the condition of my DVD when it arrived in the mail. The package was not damaged. The contents were in tact. The movie played without a glitch in its presentation. I was very impressed, pleased and satisfied 100% with my purchase. I would highly recommend that others shop with the seller and this site for services and products desired. Lastly, I will continue to patronize them myself in the future. Thanks a lot.
No ending to an interesting story 
2009-02-02 - This movie is very well acted and it held my interest throughout. Donald Sutherland's character is insipid, which is, I suppose, what he is supposed to be, so I can't hold that against the actor. Stockard Channing is very real in her role, and Will Smith basically carries the movie on his shoulders even though he isn't in all of the scenes. He plays the role of an insane young man who pretends to be Sidney Poitier's son in order to wedge his way into the homes of wealthy people. He gives them quite a ride, and gives himself one as well. Obviously the story is farfetched, but not so farfetched as to be impossible. Perhaps someone from an inner city background could pull that off, though I doubt it. At the end we are informed that the Will Smith character is insane, as shown in a pathetic phone call from him to Stockard Channing in which he makes it clear that he actually believes himself to be who he is pretending to be. His deepest, and pathetic, desire is to be a member of that wealthy society.
This is a 4 or 5 star performance that ran into one of my biggest pet peeves in theatre, thereby dropping it to only 2 stars. It failed to tie up loose ends and give us an ending. We aren't told how it all turned out. We aren't told if Will Smith is even alive at the end, and we're led to believe he may have committed suicide. That's too big a loose end to leave dangling. We aren't told if Stockard Channing is able to re-establish contact with him.
If the movie industry wasn't in the habit of doing that to us, I'd perhaps consider it creative and original of them to leave us hanging on the ending, but they do it so often that it has become a cliche, and an annoying one. In that final scene, when Stockard Channing finally walks away from her empty shell of a husband, I realized that "they were doing it again" about the loose ends and failure to provide an ending, and I just said "roll the credits" because I knew they would. It was one of those scenes where they always roll the credits, in this case with Stockard Channing walking down a New York City street, away from her husband. It was such a predictable cliche.
In their sorry attempt at being creative with the ending, all they did was fall into a timeworn and extremely uncreative cliche. You just want to slap the director for pulling that nonsense on us. We have just given the director a couple of hours of our leisure time, and in turn we just received a slap in the face ourselves, not told how the story ends, not told if the character we have grown to care about is dead or alive.
Not good work. A fine movie ruined by a poor and unsatisfying and cliche ending.
A Movie for the Chattering Classes..... 
2009-01-07 - After watching this movie for about 10 minutes, it was obvious this was first a Broadway play in Manhattan. The characters are chatterers who constantly, in their stream of consciousness manner, spout off their musings. Any momentary opportunity for a gap of silence is filled in with non-stop babble.
To be fair, the movie is witty and intelligent in places. But for the most part, people don't converse in this way. The performances and the actors ( obviously ) are top notch. Just a bit unrealistic and not my cup of tea.
AMAZON Scores Again
2009-01-06 - The DVD was bought for my step-granddaughter, who loves Will Smith anything! That having been said, as always, the performance of Amazon and its "work-withs" has been excellent. Better than I would ask or hope for! That's all I can say, and I have said it from the first time I ordered from AMAZON.COM.
How far would you go to feel that connection?
2008-08-26 - I had heard many good things about `Six Degrees of Separation', especially when in regards to Will Smith's performance. Finally, a few nights back, I had the chance to check it out and I must say that Will Smith is not the only reason to watch this fantastic film; in fact there is so much good going here I'm shocked the only recognition the film received was a mere Best Actress nomination for Stockard Channing (who is phenomenal).
The film follows Louisa (Ouisa) and John (Flan) Kittredge as they recount their dealings with con-man Paul, a young African American who claims to be school friends with their children, and son of the famous Sidney Poitier. Paul shows up at their front door claiming to have been mugged. He's bleeding and says that his dear friends, Woody and Tess, told him that their parents were the kindest souls in the world, and so he knew where he needed to go. Ouisa and Flan immediately drop their plans for the evening and allow Paul to cook for them and shower them with stories of his life. They are fascinated by this young man, so much so that they offer him a room for the night; but upon their waking in the morning they find that Paul is not all that he seems.
What is so wonderful about this movie is that it brilliantly captures the root of the characters actions. It fleshes out the emotional turmoil these different class distinctions go through. It's not about money though; it's about that feeling of belonging.
Paul, a young troubled man, just wants to feel as though he has a family, people who love him, and so he cons wealthy parents who barely speak to their own children into speaking to him. He thrives off of their company, and he knows that they thrive off of his. Ouisa and Flan hardly see their own children, and this is especially difficult on Ouisa. She finds in Paul a part of herself, a parental longing, that she has been waiting to express for so long, and this becomes apparent even after Paul's façade is broken. Paul knows what he must do to gain her affection, and she is desperate to express it.
Some have baulked at the performances, claiming that they are over-the-top and unrealistic, but I think that those critics (see, I refer to my fellow reviewers as critics because in all honesty, that's what we are here) are missing the point. This is a film adaptation of a stage-play, and stage acting is much more theatrical than screen acting. `Six Degrees of Separation' carries the same feel as the play as apposed to keeping the story but changing the atmosphere (ala `Proof' or the recent `Bug'). When you watch `Six Degrees of Separation' you might as well be sitting in the theater, for the performances are as richly fulfilled as if they were performing for a live audience.
On that note.
Yes, Will Smith is fantastic. He really captures the air of someone who is faking his way into our hearts. I never once thought that his façade was real, and I think this helps add weight to the fact that these parents are desperately seeking his form of attention. They are longing for some interaction with their own children that they overlook any and all of inconsistencies in Paul's story just to keep him near to them. Channing is utterly brilliant here as well, truly capturing the plight of her character. Sutherland is also great as Flan, offsetting Ouisa's sentiment with that strong male logic that clouds over his emotional state. The supporting cast is fine indeed, Ian McKellen has a nice small role, but the three leads are truly the most memorable and make the biggest impression.
`Six Degrees of Separation' is a marvelous character study, a film that allows us to peer inside ourselves and find the parts of us that long to belong, and ultimately ask ourselves how far we'd be willing to go to attain the attention we so desperately desire.
