Reviewed at MGM Screening Room, Santa Monica, Nov. With Six Degrees of Separation, I got a taste early of the dangers of going too far for a character, he said. Screenplay, John Guare, based on his play.Ĭamera (Deluxe color Panavision widescreen), Ian Baker editor, Peter Honess music, Jerry Goldsmith production design, Patrizia von Brandenstein art direction, Dennis Bradford set decoration, Gretchen Rau costume design, Judianna Makovsky sound (Dolby), Bill Daly assistant director, Amy Sayres casting, Ellen Chenoweth. Produced by Fred Schepisi, Arnon Milchan. It was presented in London two years later in 1992 at the Royal Court Theatre with Stockard Channing, Paul Shelley and Adrian Lester before transferring to the. The thrall of an exciting journey is run aground by rather routine, banal explanations.Īn MGM release of a Maiden Movies/New Regency production. While it provides the material with an edge and uncertainty, the wildly black comic elements evaporate as the script attempts to make sense of the human condition. Guare and director Fred Schepisi are intent on changing the rules as the story proceeds. In 1993, the actor starred in Six Degrees of Separation as Paul Poitier, a mysterious young man who intrudes upon the lives of an affluent couple played by Donald Sutherland and Stockard Channing. The transition from farce to thriller to moral inspection does not flow organically. Will Smith is opening up about his feelings for a former co-star. Paul’s importance diminishes as the Kittredges begin to look in the mirror for the essential answers. They simply must get to the root of why anyone would go to such elaborate lengths to create such an elegant ruse for no tangible profit. However, the incident weighs heavily on their minds. The police are called but make it very clear perpetrating gullibility is not a felony offense. It doesn’t become any clearer when friends relate a carbon-copy experience. They sense they were taken advantage of and resent how easily they fell for his patter. Was something stolen? Worse yet, they might have been murdered. Paul flees and his hosts begin to hyperventilate. The bubble promptly bursts when Ouisa Kittredge awakens the next morning and finds their guest cavorting with a male hustler. He also cooks a spectacular meal and by the end of the evening has established such a warm bond that the Kittredges insist he sleep over. Donald Sutherland & Stockard Channing - Six Degrees of Separation 1993. Posing as the son of Sidney Poitier, he captivates the couple and a visiting friend (Ian McKellen) with his candor, intelligence and passion. In that brief period, he proves himself immaculately seductive. Identifying himself as Paul (Will Smith), a friend and classmate of their children at Harvard, he enters their life for a moment. They have an incredible story to relate about a young black man who arrived at their doorstep late one evening bleeding from a knife wound and claiming to have been a mugging victim. The tale within a tale is related by the Kittredges (Stockard Channing, Donald Sutherland), chic Fifth Avenue folk who deal and speculate in high-society art.