Six Degrees of Separation (1993)

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