Key Cast

Stockard Channing, Will Smith, Donald Sutherland, Ian McKellen, Mary Beth Hurt, Bruce Davison, Anthony Michael Hall, Heather Graham, Eric Thal, Richard Masur.

Synopsis

The story of a New York couple (Donald Sutherland and Stockard Channing) who are duped into believing that a young man is Sidney Poitier’s son. Discovering their roles as gullible victims, they decide to look into the scam. This drama has comedic highlights.
Channing received an Oscar nomination.

imdb entry

 

Ian MacKellan on Six Degrees of Separation:
“I had seen Stockard Channing in the London production of John Guare’s play – and I was glad that Fred had wanted her to bring her stylish performance to the screen. It was fascinating to observe him gently guide her away from the bold theatricality of her stage creation and successfully adapt it to the intimacy of the camera. He was equally tactful with Will Smith…” Read more

Press

The New Statesman – 19 Jan 2010
“Six Degrees of Separation is one to which I regularly return. When I tell you it’s a perfect movie, I do so in the knowledge that this is a ridiculous assertion, and that there is no such thing as perfection. I also do so knowing I am right. There’s nothing about the film that I would change. Who among us can say that even of our own families?” read more

New York Times (original film review)
“…Mr. Schepisi’s directorial vigor wins out over his film’s skittishness. This version may horrify purists, but it winds up working entertainingly on its own broader, flashier terms. Seldom has a play been opened up this spiritedly, with a crowd of onlookers to hear Flan and Ouisa’s titillating story (a role once played by the theater audience), a number of well-chosen New York locations and an array of people and paintings to flesh out Mr. Guare’s social satire. The film uses its extras as skillfully as it uses a mock Kandinsky, which is prominently featured. It seems appropriate that the film’s real and phony artworks are casually intermingled.” read more