Do we need another movie to tell us that men are addicted to sex? How about one which discusses the destructive ‘disease’ of sexual addiction?

Talk about counter pop-culture. We have come to presume films and TV shows will present the sexual activity of men as a rowdy encouragement of promiscuity.

That to be addicted to sex is not only right but normal, good and just how blokes are. Boys will be boys.

Thanks For Sharing disagrees. The sexual appetites of men are not always healthy and high five worthy. This dramatic comedy focuses upon several sex addicts and reveals how their consuming condition shatters relationships and lives. Adam (The Avengers Mark Ruffalo) has been ‘sober’ for five years, attending a support group to help him cure his ‘disease’. His mentor is Mike (Tim Robbins), a 10-year recovering addict who describes giving up as ‘like trying to quit crack, with the pipe attached to your body.’

The behaviour of twenty-something Neil (Josh Gad) is a clear demonstration of what Adam and Mike have been battling to resist. For example, Neil secretly films up the skirt of his boss. She finds out. He is fired. “I’m out of control and I need help,” Neil announces.

Also starring Gwyneth Paltrow and singer Pink, Thanks For Sharing homes in on extreme cases of sexual obsession. It’s easy to object though that not all men are pressing their groins against random women on trains, like Neil does. As such, this is just a movie about dudes who take it way too far. So, if you believe that’s not you, there’s nothing for you to learn, or be challenged by.

Writing off Thanks For Sharing like that is to dismiss what it’s saying to all men. Any man will damage intimate relationships when his sexual urges overrule commitment, feelings and integrity.

The real problem Adam, Mike and Neil face is that their insatiable lust destroys the foundations of solid, monogamous couples. How can they be trusted to stay faithful? Can these afflicted men truly love one woman?

Since the ‘free love’ cataclysm of the 1960s, the separation of sex from intimacy has become the status quo. Sex is widely viewed as an activity of physical and sensual gratification. Intimacy doesn’t have to be a factor. Sex is not personal devotion to the other. It’s just fun and pleasure, right?

However, as Thanks For Sharing indicates, sex and intimacy are inseparable bedfellows. The conjoining of two bodies is intimate. Pain experienced by Adam, Mike and Neil flows from the incompatible assertion that sex can be detached from emotions or connection. We might believe that’s the case. But when we stop to think about it, can such an intimate act be anything else?

“The two will become one flesh,” is the way Jesus described a married couple (Mark 10:6-8). He was teaching how, since the dawn of humanity, God intended sexual relations to be the domain of marriage (cf. Genesis 2:24).

Why? Because sex is the ultimate physical expression of unity between man and woman. Sex should equate to singular devotion and deep relationship.

Thanks For Sharing shows us the damaging consequences of using sex for anything less.