User reviews

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.

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.

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)

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")

A film that had its moments, like that wonderful monologue about Catcher in the Rye, or the distress someone feels about how real experiences dissolve into future anecdotes. It also provides a nice bit of satire about the wealthy, their entitled offspring, and their delusions about their own racial tolerance.

Unfortunately, it's also one of the more affected scripts, with dialogue that ventures beyond just stagey (obviously coming from a play) and into exaggeration. There is real pathos at the bottom of this story, but it's undercut by so much of what we see not feeling real.

"Mom told me you were a rotten lover and drank so much your body smelled of cheap white wine!" a son bellows at his father over the phone. "I was so happy, I wanted to add sex to it," the con-man says in a sing-song voice to explain why he brought a lover up to the rich couple's apartment. There are many other examples of groan-worthy lines.

I have to say, the film also doesn't do a very good job with its title concept, that we're separated from everyone on the planet by six other people. It's just stated as something a character has read, without an example or further discussion. It's in there I suppose as a way of highlighting the empathy the wealthy should be feeling for the young man who has tried to wheedle into their world, as "close" as the human hive is supposed to be, but that felt more forced than satisfying to me.

I liked the performances from Will Smith and Stockard Channing, and I liked the creativity (dare I say imagination) it showed in the second half. Once we know there's a con across multiple people going on, a more conventional film would have gone through the drama of what was being stolen (like maybe a switcharoo of those expensive paintings for fakes) and how the guy would get caught (following a cat and mouse game with a savvy detective). In this one, we don't know at all what direction it will take. Overall, kind of an odd film, but worth seeing.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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!

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."

When it comes to acting, "Six Degrees of Separation" is well worth seeing because there are so many wonderful performances. This is THE reason to see the movie as well as the strange plot. Unfortunately for me, the ending didn't work well and didn't pull everything together well. You may have a very different reaction to the ending.

The story begins with a rather annoying couple, Flan and Ouisa (Donald Sutherland and Stockard Channing) panicking...as if they'd been robbed. However, this isn't the case and later you realize that you were misunderstanding the plot...and the way it was written, you are meant to be confused. Further, when Paul (Will Smith) is introduced in a flashback, you become MORE confused. He appears to be a very slick confidence man who has wormed his way into the rich couple's life. But why? If not to rob them, then what? And, what makes it even more confusing, soon they learn of others who were taken in by Paul....but again, he didn't seem to steal anything. What gives???!!!

As I mentioned above, I loved the acting. The film is based on the play of the same name and I saw two weaknesses...one very minor and one bigger one. The small one is that Paul is TOO well versed...too slick. To me, that makes it easy to see he's a con man of sorts....and it is a bit odd others were taken in this easily. The bigger one is the very end. Ouisa's reaction to Paul's disappearance is just odd. Now it's not odd that she realizes her life is a lie (he kids, for example, are really jerks)...but her attachment to Paul just didn't make much sense...especially to the degree it happens in the story. Still, despite all this, it's worth seeing...as there really is nothing else like it!

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.

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.

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.

Stockard Channing was also phenomenal as of course will smith was, the whole cast and crew did a great job. I found it a little boring in parts and yet brilliant in others. I was a sales person in the 80s and know a little about puffing!! Will was perfect at it, it's not lieing its puffing!! A fine line i learned to master however this movie is a slow burn as they say and I have A.D.D. so my concentration wanders in slow burn movies. It was a solid 6.5 only because of the great performances the story started out fantastic but then dragged and the ending was just ok. I get the meaning of the movie I related to it in so many ways. I was a young aspiring possible executive and was offered a big job in New York flew there and met all these pompous old white men and I said no and stayed in Minnesota. Anyway it's a decent film and if you're a will smith fan it's an absolute must I think its 1 of his best performances.

"All you've got to do in order for the bourgeousie to clasp you to their bosom is appeal to their vanity and avarice". Dead on-target though that assessment may be, it makes for an insufferably grating few hours of film-watching. Having to squirm through footage of fine actors INTENTIONALLY masquerading as obnoxious twits may not EXACTLY be my idea of torture, but it came perilously close to it on occasion.

The only possible redeeming feature of this I can see would be as a vehicle to showcase Will Smith's talents as a straight dramatic actor. Having offered this as some form of mitigation, if you really do want proof of his capabilities that badly, then "Ali" is a much better and more worthy demonstration.

If ever there were an argument for pretentious and stultifying dull playwrights to confine some of the vacuous twaddle they peddle strictly to the theatre and nowhere else, then ladies and gentlemen, this movie may well be it. I found it to be staggeringly tedious and irritating, but if you're looking for something to set your teeth on edge, then this could just do the trick - It's seriously about the only thing it managed to achieve in MY case! 2/10.

Ouisa (Stockard Channing) and Flan Kittredge (Donald Sutherland) are upper class Fifth Avenue NYC private art dealers. Their prized possession is a two-sided Kandinsky. They recount the story of their dinner with wealthy South African investor Geoffrey Miller (Ian McKellen) to a growing crowd. Paul (Will Smith) interrupts the dinner showing up at their door claiming to have been robbed in Central Park. He supposedly is studying at Harvard with their kids Talbot and Woody and is the son of Sidney Poitier. All the while, he is shown practicing his con. Then they catch him in bed with Rick (Eric Thal) and they kick him out. However Miller wants to connect with Sidney Poitier. Then their friends Kitty (Mary Beth Hurt) and Larkin (Bruce Davison) come to them with the same story. They find Dr. Fine (Richard Masur) with a familiar encounter. The kids find out that it's their high school classmate Trent Conway (Anthony Michael Hall).

It's an eye-opening performance from Will Smith and it's actually one of his best. He's being the slick performer and it's playing up his natural charisma. It is probably one of his most daring character and one which he has not gone beyond. I do wish he takes some chances in non-conventional roles to expand his repertoire. Channing and Sutherland are also terrific. It's sharp social commentary. On a minor note, J.J. Abrams overacts a bit as Dr. Fine's crazed son. His ridiculousness is somewhat funny. The kids generally yell and overact too much.

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)

"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)