Six Degrees of Separation (1993) User Reviews

Absorbing script and performances

[rosscinema · 8/10 · 5 June 2003]

This is the film that made even the most harshest critics admit that Will Smith had real potential as far as being a serious actor is concerned. This is the story of a young gay hustler named Paul (Smith) who knocks on the door of Ouisa and Flan Kittredge (Stockard Channing and Donald Sutherland) and tells them a story of being mugged and also being the son of Sidney Poitier. He says he knows their children from college and remembered they lived there so thats why he came. After a lot of talking and impressing them he cooks them a nice dinner and they invite him to spend the night. They also loan him money but in the morning they find him with another man and they kick everyone out. The Kittredge's talk to their friends and find out that they all encountered Paul as well but were afraid to say something because they were embarrassed. The films title refers to the fact that we all know everyone by six people or degrees. The main focus of the film deals with how this young man made these characters take a good hard look at themselves and the relationship they have with each other and their children. The writing is very sharp and for most of us what is being said onscreen can easily go over our heads. Its a very intelligent script that forces the characters to see things that they seem to take for granted. Directed by Fred Schepisi who has shown a real knack for filming plays before and he also has shown to be very good at making films that are more character oriented. I remember one of his first films from the 70's called "The Devils Playground" and was impressed at that time by his direction. What really stood out for me though were the performances. Will Smith seems to tackle this complex script with an all to easy manner. As I watched his performance it was clear that he really understood the script and his character. You don't see that everyday from such a young actor, especially one that has limited training. But for me the best performance comes from Stockard Channing who was in the play as well. She's always been a very strong actress and a very underrated one at that. While watching her character in this film Channing does a wonderful job of allowing the viewer to watch her characters attitude change from the first scene to the very last. It really is Channings film and she received a well deserved Oscar nomination for it. Its one of the best in her career and its the driving force for the film. Casual film watchers may be put off by the sharp dialogue at first but I hope they stay with it, its a very good film about self realization and all the actors here are terrific.

A very good story, with brilliant performances, well worth watching.

[PyrolyticCarbon · 8/10 · 9 December 2002]

At once you can see this was a stage play, with the concentration on dialogue, and although it stands out somewhat here, and there is a slight edge of everything being just a notch above the usual, the visuals and acting bring you into this great story quite easily. Will Smith acts his pants off, well quite literally in some scenes, but he is superb in this role, and acting along such names as Stockard Channing and Donald Sutherland, both of whom are spectacular in their roles. A story based around the idea that everyone is connected to everyone else by a maximum of six other people, it's just finding those six that make the link, and this is turned into an extremely interesting story, told in a series of anecdotal discussions between the main characters and their friends and business partners at various different social occasions. You find yourself drawn and fascinated to the tale as it unfolds, almost feeling as though you are one of those people, eager to hear the next step in the tale. However, I felt somewhat disappointed in the ending, almost as though it didn't fit and came out of nowhere. Yet the ideas of the stranger giving the couple more than they gave the stranger was a good one, I just think what they finally got wasn't what the story needed…but then, sometimes that's life. A very good story, with brilliant performances, well worth watching.

This is the kind of film that deserved much more attention...

[danielll_rs · 8/10 · 23 October 1999]

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.

absolutely stunning

[markol0 · 28 January 2002]

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)

Outstanding Performances, Confused Screenplay

[claudio_carvalho · 7/10 · 30 July 2006]

In New York, the art dealers John Flanders ('Flan') Kittredge (Donald Sutherland) and Louisa ('Ouisa') Kittredge (Stockard Channing) are ready to have a business dinner with their South African friend and client Geoffrey Miller (Ian McKellen), when a wounded young black man comes to their fancy apartment telling that he had been just robbed in Central Park and asking for help. He introduces himself as Paul (Will Smith), a friend of their son and daughter in Harvard and son of Sidney Poitier, and the couple invites him to stay with them. During they night, they find that Paul is not who he claims to be. When they investigate the life of Paul, they find the hidden truth.

The first time I saw "Six Degrees of Separation" in 1993 or 1994, I was very impressed with this movie. I liked the concept of the six degrees of separation between human beings, but mostly the acting of Will Smith, Stockard Channing and Donald Sutherland. The very difficult and long lines were brilliantly presented by this trio of excellent actors and actress, almost as if they were on the stage. Further, the name of Stockard Channing in a film for me is a synonymous of high quality. Today I have just seen this movie again, and I maybe I am more critical with the years, but I found the screenplay quite confused. For example, the relationships of parents and sons and daughters are extremely aggressive from the side of the Harvard students, and I have not understood the point in the story. The affection of Louisa ('Ouisa') Kittredge for Paul Poitier- Kittredge could be a projection of what she would like to receive from her apparently ungrateful son and daughter, but her daughter actually talks to her. Anyway, this movie is intriguing and original and deserves to be watched. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Seis Graus de Separação" ("Six Degrees of Separation")

Good acting - but too clearly a so-so stage play.

[Pedro_H · 6/10 · 9 February 2005]

A small time street conman (Will Smith) talks his way in to an uptown New York apartment with the aim of hustling a few bucks and a free meal - but things develop in ways neither party could have predicted.

I always says con-men and gigolos know more about the human condition than most university professors. While the professors live in their ivory towers preaching to note takers, the con has to work his/her knowledge in the cold world of reality.

This film, developed from a play, gives mixed messages. The central couple are art dealers, so they know a little about hustling, charming and selected truths themselves. Meanwhile the black con Paul (Will Smith) is very street level. All he has is a silver tongue.

(David Hampton - which the story is based on - died of AIDS without a penny in the world.)

The story is interesting enough for a while, but the lack of drama soon makes itself felt. In all con stories there is only two threads of drama: Will the mark go for the con or not. In most such stories the author goes in for a bit of both - to get in the maximum drama. I won't say what happens here.

The green edges of the chattering classes are exposed and the acting is first class, but I wasn't sure what this adds to the sum of my knowledge. Paul is a failure and maybe suffering from a personality disorder. He is in the wrong game because a silver tongue could take him far in this world - all goods need selling.

I praise this film more for being different more than being good. It is a mediocre script and the tricks it can pull are limited. Its main plus is proving that Smith can act quite well when given the time and the space.

John Guare's Children

[don_agu · 9/10 · 29 June 2005]

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.

Challenging Assignment

[harry-76 · 7/10 · 11 November 2002]

Converting this hit Broadway play to film posed a real challenge.

How to "open it up" so that it worked as film, was Director Fred Schepisi's challenge to his production crew. What was successful onstage needed to be properly converted.

The original playwright John Guare also scripted here, and did a respectable job with a tough assignment. The production ended up being edited in a kind of "patchwork quilted" manner, often with mixed results: the constant juxtaposing and vacillating of scenes seemed to become redundant at times.

The cast did good work, though. Each lead--Donald Sutherland, Will Smith, and Stockard Channing--brought his and her own distinctive persona to their respective part.

To focus in on Channing, she certainly has enjoyed a remarkably varied career, with an almost breathtaking array of fully developed characters. Although she's been in the business working constantly for over thirty years to date, she still looks great. Her emotional range is enormous, and every part she tackles is intelligently realized.

The currently long running tv series, "The West Wing" is a case in point, in which she constantly appears as creative and energized as in the first episode. Even after playing "Six Degrees" for four years at Lincoln Center, her film work here looks completely fresh.

In an interesting bio on Bravo, Channing revealed that she's happy to be where she is: sort of on the "second-tier" of the "star ladder." As fine as she is, she doesn't have "It" like, say, a Julia Roberts--but then she admits to being happy "not surrounded by armed guards of photographers all the time." Thus she can walk down a street in relative obscurity. Yet when viewers see her in a production, they recognize "that face and that voice." (Personally, I always thought she might've had better career luck going by her real first name, "Susan.")

"Six Degrees" is admittedly quite a talkfest for film, a kind of an intellectual exercise, not for all tastes. One has to really focus in and keep the brain attentive. For those who have the energy and willingness to do so, "Six Degrees of Separation" offers a most intriguing and enjoyable dramatic experience.

'I want life to be experiences, not just anecdotes'

[gradyharp · 10/10 · 7 October 2005]

SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION is an outstanding play transformed to the screen with dignity but with a script that keeps us in the live theatre instead of in a motion picture. Not that that is a bad thing: the script by John Guare is brilliant. It simply seems a little static, with its marvelous plays on words, repeated phrases, and disjointed movements significant unto themselves but not really taking advantage of cinematic possibilities of flow.

Essentially the tale of how a married couple who deal art (Stockard Channing and Donald Sutherland - both in peak form) are so caught up in their superficial lives that they are taken in by a handsome young African American con artist (Will Smith) whose various antics bring the couple round to reexamining their shallow existence. Most of the story is related over art dealings and dinner conversations and are peopled by such luminaries as Kitty Carlisle, Ian McKellen, artists Chuck Close and Kazuko, Mary Beth Hurt, Bruce Davidson etc - a really fine ensemble. There are many social comments clustered in this story and it continues to play well after its origins on the stage and fifteen years after the movie was made. This was one of Will Smith's entries into film as well as one of the gifted Stockard Channing's finest roles. Highly recommended for repeated viewings. Grady Harp

Good storytelling, bad story

[mrsovicdarko · 6/10 · 17 August 2015]

Movie starts as an interesting story. I thought that Pol will rob rich people, and that is why he trained so much. I hoped that he would do some great deceit. but no, as the movie goes along, it become clear that behind it is a story not worth telling. Poor gay guy who only wants to enjoy rich people company, not cool. especially because those rich people are full of them, and not care about lower class, and doing everything not to become. Ending is too poor. Some would say that it leaves it to imagination, but I say that it lacks imagination. 6 stars only because it has great actors that did fine job, and story at first that got me curious. On the second hand, maybe I should put 5 stars, too bad for grades in between, 5,5 is the correct answer. Not totally waste of time, now I know some interesting facts about some things, and of course those 6 degrees of separation :)

I thought the movie might get better....but no

[msclift · 1/10 · 6 May 2005]

This movie is a pretentious, vacuous waste of time. There is nothing interesting about the characters or the plot. The film seems to take its only delight in shocking the audience with its own repugnance. I believed that this movie was funded by the makers of Prozac, as they would be the only group with a financial interest in seeing this movie produced.

The only reason I wanted to see this movie was because of the title "Six degrees of Separation."

This is supposed to mean that through six human contacts any person in the world will know any other person.

Sadly, this movie never even explores this idea.

Instead, we get to see Will Smith play a ridiculously unbelievable gay con man.

He cons his way into the homes of Donald Sutherland and Stockard Channing for the sole purpose of befriending them.

That's it; he's not after their money but rather their friendship.

Why? Apparently it's because he's a flaming effeminate psycho.

Unbelievably, they gave Stockard Channing an academy award nomination for her role. Their is absolutely no reason to do so. Her character was barely even part of the story.

A very unbelievable and uninteresting story.

Overlooked and thoughtful examination of many salient barriers

[jpoulter11 · 10/10 · 19 January 2011]

A fantastic script bolstered by excellent performances, pleasant visuals, and steady directing. Once 'Six Degrees' truly gains momentum and once the characters become fleshed out (usually aided by the insertion of complementary characters), the issues tackled in the film start to weigh heavily.

There are so many worthwhile concepts at play here, particularly the latent desire for those separated by a societal barrier (race, class, age, etc.) to reconcile and to look more closely at one another.

The ending was fantastic; it may be frustrating to some viewers given its ambiguity, but that's what I loved about it. The events that occurred in the film would not be done any justice by neatly wrapping them up at the conclusion. There are too many disparate forces and influences on the characters, especially Ouisa. The important thing, however, is how she embraces her new experiences and allows them to challenge her and contemplate if her life is how she wants it to be.

Highly, highly recommended.

Six Degrees of Separation

[jboothmillard · 6/10 · 24 October 2010]

During the days of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, and just before getting the big break in Bad Boys, this was probably when the film industry really took notice of the up and coming black American star, from director Fred Schepisi (Roxanne, Fierce Creatures). Basically the Kitteredges, Louisa 'Ouisa' (Grease's Oscar and Golden Globe nominated Stockard Channing) and John Flanders 'Flan' (Donald Sutherland) are rich art dealers in New York. They are ready to make a big deal with South African friend and client Geoffrey Miller (Sir Ian McKellen), when they are interrupted by a young black man named Paul (Will Smith) coming into their fancy apartment. He says he was robbed in Central Park, and after they help aid his wound, he starts telling them about himself, claiming to be a friend of their son and daughter in Harvard. Secretly though, we see from some flashbacks, he has practised everything he is going to say to Ouisa and Flan, and how to say it, and they believe every word, even his claim to be the son of Sidney Poitier. Paul does absolutely everything to charm the couple, and Geoffrey as well, including making a home cooked dinner, and they kindly invite him to stay the night, while Geoffrey has been tempted to go through with the deal with Flan. The next morning however Ouisa and Flan find out that Paul is not everything he claims to be, when they find him making love to a man, and they are sure he was fibbing about much more than that. The Kitteredges try to investigate Paul further, and along the way they realise that they are not the only ones to be almost conned by this very talkative and very clever black kid on the block. After many revolutions about Paul, and people saying that Paul did do some good for their lives in some way or another, Paul calls Ouisa and Flan at home to make his confessions, they did try to see things from his side, but in the end there can only be tragedy. Also starring Mary Beth Hurt as Kitty, Bruce Davison as Larkin, Richard Masur as Dr. Fine, The Breakfast Club's Anthony Michael Hall as Trent Conway, Heather Graham as Elizabeth, Eric Thal as Rick and Lost creator J.J. Abrams as Doug. The title, also called the "Human Web" relates to the idea that everyone is at most six steps away from any other person on Earth, so that a chain of, "a friend of a friend" statements can be made to connect any two people in six steps or fewer. Anyway, Smith is the driving force of this film, he is perfect in his role as the supposedly knowledgeable con, Channing is also good as the wife in the con, and Sutherland does alright as her husband. It's a film that makes you think about how you know and find out about people in your lives, and it is a likable drama. Good!

Complicatd is not synonymous to intellectual...

[buiger · 3/10 · 3 January 2006]

Nonsense. This is one of those movies I am too stupid to understand... The film starts from nowhere, goes nowhere and ends up nowhere. The film tries to be intellectual for the sake of being intellectual, and not because it has something to say. As a matter of fact, it has nothing to say, apart from the fact that rich kids are alienated from their parents in modern society and spoiled by "having", which is rather obvious, and this is just a footnote of under 5 minutes in a movie that lasts 2 hours! The rest is... simply nonsense.

One gets the feeling that this film is something like modern art; the viewer is not supposed to understand because he is an inferior creature to the artist who is the only one who has been enlightened. Since humans however, do not like being inferior creatures, they say they understand (even if they don't) and praise the genius of the artist simply so that they too can feel as "enlightened" themselves... This is in my opinion why most critics praise this and similar movies, books, paintings, etc...

On a positive note, one has to say that Will Smith's performance in his cinematic debut is fantastic! This is definitely not something one can see every day. It's a pity his later roles where all mainly commercial and therefore devoid of much depth, because here he has proved he can act!

The inspiration for this play/movie.

[raskl_one · 6 May 2006]

Six Degrees' Inspiration Hampton Dies Sat Jul 19, 3:14 PM ET

By LARRY McSHANE, Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK - This was no stage production, and there was no happy ending.

David Hampton, the ersatz son of Sidney Poitier whose pursuit of the glamorous life inspired the award-winning play "Six Degrees of Separation," died last month in a decidedly desolate fashion: alone in a Manhattan hospital bed, friends confirmed Saturday.

"David, like many of us, had a real need to be somebody important and special," said attorney and close friend Susan Tipograph. "He did stuff to be somebody in his mind ? somebody important, somebody fabulous.

"To me, he was fabulous."

The black teenager earned notoriety by charming his way into New York's white upper crust, presenting himself in 1983 as the Oscar-winning Poitier's son and a Harvard University student. The scam inspired John Guare's acclaimed play and a movie starring Will Smith.

The reality was quite different: Hampton came from a middle-class home in Buffalo, a city he once dismissed as lacking anyone "glamorous or fabulous or outrageously talented." His father was an attorney, not an actor.

Hampton, 39, died at Beth Israel Hospital, Tipograph said. He had been living in a small room at an AIDS residence, and was trying to start work on a book about his life.

Hampton was glib, charming, funny ? the skills of the consummate con man. He talked his way into the homes of several prominent New Yorkers, including the dean of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and the president of public television station WNET.

Once there, he reveled in the posh surroundings and fancy meals. He accepted money and clothes and regaled his hosts with stories about his famous "father."

"David took a great joy in living the life he lived," said attorney Ronald Kuby, who knew Hampton for more than a decade. "It was performance art on the world's smallest possible stage, usually involving an audience of only one or two."

After he was taken into custody in October 1983, police said Hampton had six previous arrests in New York and Buffalo. Hampton, just 19, pleaded guilty to attempted burglary and was sentenced to 21 months in prison.

Guare, inspired by the bizarre tale, opened his play in 1990 to immediate critical praise. It won the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award, an Obie, and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.

But on the day the play was nominated for four Tony Awards, a court order was issued telling Hampton to stay away from Guare, who said he'd been threatened.

Hampton felt entitled to a cut of the cash generated by his "work," and he sued ? unsuccessfully ? for a $100 million piece of the play's profits in 1992. There was victory in the defeat: It introduced him to another of Manhattan's bright lights, radical lawyer William Kunstler.

Hampton was later arrested for leaving this message on Guare's answering machine: "I would strongly advise you that you give me some money or you can start counting your days." A jury acquitted him of harassment.

"I think he felt used by Mr. Guare," said Tipograph. "I'll let history judge that."

The 1993 movie version of the play earned Stockard Channing an Oscar nomination for best actress. Channing recreated her stage performance as a wealthy Manhattanite taken in by the scam artist.

In recent years, Hampton kept in touch with friends and stayed in trouble: He faced charges of fare-beating and credit-card theft. One alleged victim told The New York Times that Hampton, using the name David Hampton-Montilio, duped him out of more than $1,400 in October 2001.

"When pretending to be somebody else, he dazzled people," Kuby said. "For an evening or a couple of days, he mesmerized people by bringing them into his totally fictitious world of stardom."

Liked the movie (rather!) but not the people.

[esh04676 · 7/10 · 4 October 2004]

The Kittredges, wealthy art dealers, isolated in their NYC penthouse, and rather out of touch with the real world are visited by a charming young black man, claiming to be a friend of the Kittredges' children at Harvard and needing a place to stay. Complications develop as the boy turns out to be something other than what he has presented himself as. The superficiality of the Kittredges and their set is brilliantly depicted. Stockard Channing, Donald Sutherland, and Will Smith give superb performances. But humanity and warmth is missing from the lives of the Kittredges and their set. It is telling that when Louisa Kittredge surprises the Will Smith character in bed with someone else she is horrified; she cannot accept human contact on any level other than cocktail party chitchat. I enjoyed a lot of this film, but in the end found it muddling.

Fairly Good

[Idocamstuf · 7/10 · 25 July 2003]

This was the film that got Will Smith started in movies, he gives a surprisingly good performance, also the film is rather uneven. The plot is rather simple, and the film is quite entertaining. Donald Sutherland and Stockard Channing are well cast as the rich couple that is conned by a black man(Smith). The supporting cast is first rate as well, youll see Heather Graham(Boogie Nights, Austin Powers 2), Richard Masur(The Thing, My Girl), Mary Beth Hurt(The World According To Garp, Affliction), and even Anthony Michael Hall(The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles). Overall, not a bad film, ***1/2 out of *****.

The Con, The Greed, The Homosexuality

[ROBERT_BLUE · 9/10 · 6 September 2007]

Every once and awhile, seemingly always at the oddest of times, I finally sit down to watch one of those films that everyone's heard of, but no one has seen. And every once and awhile I find a film that stirs my passion for storytelling.

Six Degrees of Separation will most likely never be understood, as the themes and allusions are often colored and complex. Even this writer doesn't begin to fully understand everything Guare is trying to say. It is however, quite disappointing, that in all of the internet chatter Google may churn out, the themes of homosexuality are ignored as if they have absolutely no bearing on the story. They are as vital a part of the story as is Louisa's breakdown scene, and Flan's realization that he does actually love Paul.

So, when you're at the video store, bored with the drivel Hollywood pukes out these days, pick this film up. Pay close attention to the cracks that begin to form in the characters, and run your fingers along those cracks to the end, and you may find yourself caught up in a story with a star shaped meaning. But be careful, it is the type of story that may have you looking inside yourself and who you're connected to.

Impressed by Will Smith

[AKS-6 · 7/10 · 10 May 2001]

Six Degrees of Separation is a very entertaining and interesting movie. Based on a play, it is very talky though, but it suits the theme of the movie. It is very interesting to see Will Smith play a character like Paul, and I'm very impressed by the fact that he plays this serious character with as much ease as the funny hero characters he usually plays. (7/10)

Like No Other

[Hitchcoc · 9/10 · 22 February 2011]

I guess we can see the genius of Will Smith right from the start. This is a film about a chameleon who is able to create for himself identities suited to an intriguing game he is playing. He really wants to be loved, but has become so deeply entrenched in his charade that he soon isn't sure what he wants. He is a master of subterfuge with a smile and a wink. He claims to be the son of someone who is relatively reclusive and unapproachable. This gives him the opportunity to invade people's lives; but for what? It's his "victims" that grow because of him. He is searching for a family but needs so many assurances. He chooses the super-rich, which makes his job much harder. The performances by Donald Sutherland, Stockard Channing, and Smith, himself are quite incredible. I began by absolutely hating these people. They are so smug and pretentious that they make one gag. And that's why their redemption due to this invader is so poignant. They grow to love this young man in their own ways, despite the fact that he appears dangerous (is he; I don't know). Of course, the six degrees is the theory that we are all related in some way if we go back six generations. The thing asked is, how can we then be so different. A real surprise.

More than six out of ten.

[rrsmac · 7/10 · 11 January 2004]

I'm not a fan of rap stars turned movie actors (the jury's still out on Eminem and Queen Latifah in my opinion) but Will Smith turned in a sterling performance in this film that I watched for the first time tonight. He played a blue collar homosexual conman who invaded but possibly enriched the lives of isolated upper class fools, while pretending to be the son of Sidney Poitier. As his deception unravelled, the effect of his entrance into their lives deeply affected those involved, marvellously played by Stockard Channing and Donald Sutherland. The film was expertly acted and directed, though as often is the case with play-to-film adaptions it did seem like a filmed play. The subject matter and the acting should however enthuse anyone who hasn't been to see it.

Blaaa, blaaa, blaaa, blaaa, blaaa, blaaa.....etc.

[=G= · 5/10 · 6 September 2002]

"Six Degrees..." tells a meager story of a pseudosophisticated art dealer of sorts in Manhattan (Sutherland) and his pseudosophisticated wife (Channing) who find a young black gay man kerplunked in their lives causing them to mentally scurry about not unlike Pooh ("Oh, Bother!") and recount the experience to their friends...etc. "Six Degrees..." is theater on film with incessant dialogue rolling off the tongues of ultraglib characters, staginess, and obvious scripting none of which are exceptional. This flick lacks the stuff which sets films apart from stage and is likely only to be appreciated by devotees of the theater, dilettantes, critics, and the like. (C)

A Rather Good Movie

[robert_haag · 8/10 · 8 January 2002]

I enjoyed Six Degrees of Separation. Very smart dialogue. I like a movie that draws one into it by philosophy and critical thinking rather than vilonce and special effects. I admire Will Smith. Considering the time line in which this movie was made he was known for Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince of Bel Air what a departure for him. I am sure he was thinking of his future in his decison for this role. Donald Sutherland deserved oscar consideration for his performance and Stockard Channing was not bad either. All in all a very good Movie.

interesting plot

[imac1234 · 7/10 · 3 October 2006]

Although we've never seen this movie it seems to be very interesting and suspenseful. The plot outline really catches our attention. I think it'll keep us on the edge of our seats. Will Smith is a very good actor for being his age so we would definitely enjoy watching him act in this movie. Critics say that Will Smith was a phenomenal actor in Six Degrees of Separation and really played a big role in transforming the play into a great film, keeping the audience at the edge of their seats. What interest us the most, about Six Degrees of Separation, is the separation of human beings. Reviews help us to believe that this is an outstanding film, however, we would have to see it to be able to respond the same way that critics responded to it.

What was that all about?

[tyheyn · 3/10 · 29 September 2001]

I kept watching the movie, waiting for a point or purpose. I ended up with an empty bag.

The movie drags you along the entire time, alluding to some greater twist or message or meaning, but there's nothing! There's no other word for this movie but stupid...'pointless' doesn't describe the gravity of how dumb it is.

I supposed you'll like this movie if you're highly artistic and found "The Muse" funny and view New York to be a cozy nook of our universe. For the rest of us, save your time and skip it.