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Adam is celebrating his fifth year of sobriety and is doing really well. Neil lies and gets his 30 day clean chip whereas in reality he hasn’t actually managed a single day. These two men are part of a 12 Step Program for addiction, but the compulsive habit they are trying to break is not alcohol or drugs but sex ….the one dependence that never seems to be treated as seriously as the others.

First glance at Adam, who is a extremely handsome successful business man with stunning Manhattan apartment, gives no hint of the ‘sickness’ he is fighting.  He sticks to his rigidly enforced routine of no television, no computer, and even no rides on the subway with its endless parade of pretty women to tempt him. And strictly no pleasuring himself alone. Neil on the other hand spends every night glued to his laptop watching endless pornography, and each day either grinding his body up to unsuspecting girls on the subway or surreptitiously filming up the skirts of his work colleagues which ends up getting him fired from his job as a doctor in the ER Department at an Hospital.

Their predicaments may be serious but this on the other hand is essentially a romantic comedy, and despite the occasional brief dark moment, we are meant to like these men, and Mike, Adam’s sponsor too, and want them to be happy.  And they are mostly. Happy that is.  Adam meets ravishing Phoebe who’s last boyfriend was an alcoholic and who declares on their second date that she never wants to be with another addict ever again.  When she discovers that Adam is, the news doesnt go down too well, but by this time they are so into each other, they try hard to make it work.

It is not until that Neil loses his job and has hit rock bottom that he meets blond punk and fellow addict Dede at one of the Meetings and there is an immediate rapport between these two, that things start to turn around for him. Theirs is not a romantic connection but one based on a recognition that neither have been able to consider the other gender in any nonsexual way and so they can become an unofficial support system for each other when dealing with frequent temptations.

Mike, on the other, is the wise old bird whose addiction once gave his wife hepatitis, but she has stuck by him in the decades since.  Despite the fact that he is the adored senior figure at the Meetings as he has a sympathetic word and advice for all, he cannot bear to even offer an ounce of support to his own (drug) recovering son. Their relationship has to get to the very brink of no return before it can ever start to be salvaged.

Oscar nominated writer Stuart Blumberg (‘The Kids Are Alright’) in his directing debut successfully gambles with blending these somewhat scary addiction plots with funny heartwarming characters that we cannot fail to connect with in such a positive way. Adam, played as a suave and immensely charmer, by Mark Ruffalo, looks the most unlikely sexual predator. Whereas Neil, played by Josh Gad, is a complete slob who with his creepy overly familiar Jewish mother, does seem the stereotype, but he has such a great voluble sense of humor you so want him to succeed in cracking his problem. Mike, played by the wonderful Tim Robbins, seems like the most together of all the men, but he in fact has more than his own demons to deal with.

And I so cannot miss mentioning the sublime Gwyneth Paltrow who was refreshingly funny and warm as Phoebe who eventually too had to admit that she has some compulsions she needed to deal with too.  In all her scenes I kept think why don’t we see her on the screen more often, especially in rom-coms as she just simply shines in every scene.

Comedy or not, I did come out with an slightly enlightened comprehension about the whole sex addict compulsion which I have really have not come across (yet) …. but with my established practice of dating serial addicts, I’m sure it wont be long before that changes.

Great movie : highly recommended.

★★★★★★★★