Themes: Cons and Scams, Social Climbing, Assumed Identities
Main Cast: Stockard Channing, Will Smith, Donald Sutherland, Ian McKellen, Mary Beth Hurt
Release Year: 1993
Country: US
Run Time: 112 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
Two socialites find their view of the world changed when a young man takes advantage of their preconceptions in this thoughtful comedy-drama. Flan and Ouisa Kittredge (Donald Sutherland and Stockard Channing) are a married couple who have built highly successful careers as art dealers catering to Manhattan's upper crust. The Kittredges are entertaining friends one evening when a young black man named Paul (Will Smith) appears at their door. Paul says that he's a close friend of their children, with whom he attended boarding school, and he's just been mugged and needs to get off the street for a moment. Flan and Ouisa invite him in, and they are immediately taken by Paul's intelligence and charm; he offers to prepare dinner, regales them with stories about his father, Sidney Poitier, and ends up spending the night at their apartment. However, the next morning Flan and Ouisa discover that they've been had; Paul is actually a con artist from the streets who has been pulling the wool over the eyes of many of their friends -- and his actions are beginning to have serious consequences. John Guare adapted the script from his own successful stage play; the supporting cast includes Ian McKellen, Mary Beth Hurt, Bruce Davison, and Heather Graham. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review
Six Degrees of Separation, adapted by John Guare from his own popular play, is a fascinating study of guilt among the idle rich and the way a talented con man can manipulate their liberal vulnerability toward his own ends -- even if they involve something so simple as fitting in. It's a sharply paced, uniquely structured story, told mostly as snippets of cocktail party anecdotes (which come under fire as a luxury -- indeed, a crutch -- of the social interactions of the well-to-do). Will Smith, then best known for his mugging on The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, is a revelation in a demanding role most wouldn't have thought him equal to. He expertly portrays the wayward homosexual who transforms himself into the intelligentsia's dream youth, unspooling an improbably flawless evening of academia and classy charm that serves as a chillingly effective entry point into these people's lives. Oscar-nominated Stockard Channing is also masterful as the gabbing socialite who's been rejected by her own children, so seeks a surrogate son in Smith's Paul. Rather than it demonstrating her charity and blindness to race and sexual preference, however, Channing's character realizes she's using Paul as a character in her endless gossip, and that she is as drawn to him for his purported relationship to actor Sidney Poitier as for his politely elegant elocution. Crucially, she struggles to figure out how else to incorporate his profoundly affecting appearance in her life. Fred Schepisi's light comic tone sometimes wanders toward extremes, particularly in the children's hysterical and mostly unwarranted rebelliousness toward their parents, which plays like high camp. Otherwise, there's nary a misstep in the film whose title and subject matter helped popularize our notion of the world's surprising interconnectedness. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide
Bruce Davison - Larkin; Richard Masur - Dr. Fine; Anthony Michael Hall - Trent Conway; Heather Graham - Elizabeth; Eric Thal - Rick; Anthony Rapp - Ben; Oz Perkins - Woody Kittredge; Catherine Kellner - Tess Kittredge; Kelly Bishop - Adele; Maggie Burke - Edmond Genest; John Cunningham - John; Peter Duchin - Sandy; Nancy Duerr - Mrs. Bannister's Guest; Margaret Eginton - Mary; Richmond Hoxie - Guest at Baptism; Madhur Jaffrey - Guest of Honor; Brian McConnachie - Mrs. Bannister's Guest; Ann McDonough - Teacher; Maeve McGuire - Polly; Frank O'Brien - Eddie; Vince O'Brien - Grandfather at Baptism; Joe Pentangelo - Police Officer; Vasek Simek - Frank the Doorman; Sam Stoneburner - Carter; Daniel Von Bargen - Detective; Jeffrey Abrams - Doug; Richard Whiting - Mrs. Bannister's Guest; Kitty Carlisle Hart - Mrs. Bannister; Robert Trumbull - Mrs Bannister's Guest; John Rowe - Usher; Margaret Thomson - Grandmother at Baptism; David Tice - Cocktail Party Guest; Ellen Chenoweth; Edmond Genest - Loft Party Guest; Mitch Kolpan - Policeman; Adele Chatfield-Taylor - Paula; Lou Milione - Hustler; Jose Rabelo - 2nd Elevator Man; Paul Schmidt - Posh Couple
Credit
Dennis Bradford - Art Director, Ellen Chenoweth - Casting, Judianna Makovsky - Costume Designer, Fred Schepisi - Director, Peter Honess - Editor, Ric Kidney - Executive Producer, Jerry Goldsmith - Composer (Music Score), Bill Daly - Musical Direction/Supervision, Naomi Donne - Makeup, Patrizia Von Brandenstein - Production Designer, Ian Baker - Cinematographer, Arnon Milchan - Producer, Fred Schepisi - Producer, Gretchen Rau - Set Designer, Maria Nay - Set Designer, John Guare - Screenwriter, John Guare - Play Author
Six Degrees of Separation is a 1993 film adaptation of the John Guareplay of the same title, which was inspired by the real-life con artist David Hampton. The film makes reference to two Kandinsky artworks, "Black Lines" and "Several Circles", referred to as chaos and control in the film respectively.
Fifth Avenue socialite Ouisa Kittredge (Stockard Channing) and her purveyor of high-art husband Flan (Donald Sutherland), are pedigree parents of "two at Harvard and one at Groton." But the privileged insular world inhabited by the Kittredge family, as well as their public status as distinguished arbiters of culture, makes them easy prey for a consummate con-artist like Paul (Will Smith). One night, he mysteriously shows up at their front door - injured and bleeding- claiming to be Sidney Poitier's son and a close college crony of the Kittredges' Ivy League progeny. Impressing Ouisa and Flan with his articulate literary expositions, Paul proves to be a sharp-witted, learned young man with epicurean taste and surprising culinary skill. His highbrow façade is so charmingly persuasive, Paul soon has the Kittredges lending him money, putting him up for the night and taking satisfaction in his appraisal of their posh lifestyle. Much to the Kittredge's shock Paul is revealed to be a highly persuasive con-man, who has charmed his way into many upper-crust homes along the upper East side with his wit and insider knowledge. As Paul's plot unravels he becomes an urban legend of the upper crust, a witty anecdote to banter about at cocktail parties. However, he has a profound effect on the many individuals who encounter him, linking them in their shared experience.
