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Unless otherwise noted,
all material on Heromaker.net
is written by Brian Murphy
© 2006.
Review Archive
FILMS
Six Degrees of Separation (1993)I've heard of this movie for quite some time now. Most-likely since it was first released in the theaters. But I had never heard anything about this movie—or rather, had never heard what this movie was about. I don't recall ever talking to anyone about Six Degrees of Separation, and yet I've always had an impression in my mind that this was a good film that I must get around to seeing one of these days, but I don't remember why.
A few weeks ago I was mindlessly linking through IMDB when I came across the entry for this film. "Huh," I remember saying. "Will Smith is in that movie? I never knew that. Wow! Donald Sutherland is too. Let's see, what's the plot? ... Will Smith plays a guy who infiltrates Manhattan's upper-class socialites by claiming to be Sidney Poitier's son. That sounds good. In fact, that sounds really good!"
That was that. On my next trip out to the local video store I decided to pick it up and see if the impression in my mind matched the actual printed film. (Or in this case, digital video disc.)
And it is a good film. I wasn't sure really what to expect, other than "good." It had a very stage-like quality to it. This is a no-brainer, though, as it was a play long before it was a film (I later found out) and so much of the dialogue is contained to one-room settings. And there's a lot of dialogue. Tons and tons and loads and loads. Almost all of the action in the movie happens purely through dialogue—which is a nice. It's like a cinematic vacation from so many movies that are plot-driven or special-effect laden films, which leave little consideration for script. And this is all script.
Donald Sutherland and Stockard Channing are acting pros, so it's no surprise that their performances as "Flan" and "Ouisa" (names that only rich people on the Upper East Side could possibly have) are outstanding.
The real shocker here is Will Smith. This was his first major acting gig, turning himself from the Fresh Prince, a pop-rapper with catchy song-lyrics, into Will Smith, an actor worth his weight in salt. Sure, he's done the action movies like Independence Day and Men In Black (which came later), but as his first film out the gates, so to speak, he surprised the hell out of me.
(Fair spoiler warning: Stop reading if you don't want to know the ending.) The ending of this film allows the audience to draw their own conclusions. Like in real life the end of the tale is not the end of the story. After Paul's (Will Smith) disappearance, life goes on. But for some of the characters in the film, they will always remember the boy. For good or ill, they'll remember him as a strange and exciting person that made a big splash in their lives.
And that is, perhaps, why I like this movie so much. Because it has a very real ending. At least it does to me. I've had plenty of people come and go in my life—either through death or friends that just faded away, never to be heard from again. I have stories about these people, like Flan and Ouisa do with Paul. Similarly, I pull these stories out at social gatherings with which to entertain my friends.
But I'd be lying if there wasn't a part of me that wished I wouldn't do that—use them as party favors to hand out to people who never knew the deceased or the faded friendship. And yet everyone does it. That's what we do at parties. We talk about our past. Whether is was two hours ago or two years ago, we talk to other people about the exciting and unfortunate things that happen to us.
Granted, sometimes we talk about the future, but those tend to be shorter stories, and infinitely less exciting.
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