Like the neurotics in Woody Allen's "Manhattan Murder Mystery," the group makes a game of learning the truth about Paul. He tops off this tale with a brilliant analysis of "The Catcher in the Rye" and then offers them all small parts in his "father's" upcoming adaptation of "Cats."Īfter giving him money, shelter and their trust, the Kittredges are shocked to learn that Paul has similarly fooled other members of their social circle - even Kitty Carlisle. In reality, Paul is a gay con artist who can't resist elaborating on his creation by also claiming to be the son of Sidney Poitier. Paul then wangles an invitation to stay overnight after he whips up a gourmet dinner for the Kittredges and their guest, a South African financier, who is so impressed with the young man that he starts planning an Afro-American film festival on the spot. One side represents chaos, the other control the scene determines which side is facing the room. (A lesser name-dropper would have mentioned the Kennedys.)Ī gifted scoundrel, Paul soon wins over the Kittredges by admiring their two-sided Kandinsky. He claims to be a college friend of their children's who has just been mugged in Central Park and has no one else to turn to, he explains, except the Auchinclosses. Then one day, their inane lives are changed by a young black man, Paul (Will Smith), who arrives at the door with a blood-soaked shirt and an unlikely story. Adept at sipping cocktails and trading brittle ripostes, the Kittredges maintain their lavish lifestyle by selling other people's Matisses for enormous sums. It is inhabited by an art dealer and his wife with the fashionably queer names of Flan (Donald Sutherland) and Ouisa Kittredge (Stockard Channing). The farce, which took place on a bare stage, now opens in a luxurious Fifth Avenue apartment. The rustle in the wings still haunts playwright John Guare's own glib adaptation. Never mind that plays - especially this too-precious gabfest - are born of words, not images. The play "Six Degrees of Separation" packed theaters in New York and London, was plied with honors on both sides of the Atlantic and inevitably - perhaps even unavoidably - has been converted into a motion picture.
‘Six Degrees of Separation’ (R) By Rita Kempley
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