That Becky scene, WOW

Becky knew Adam from before. He had apparently played daddy to her before. This time, though, if I remember correctly, he wasn't in such a hurry to play, or he saw something self-destructive in her behavior. What the scene might have been trying to say is that that brought her face-to-face with some of her issues and sent her into a maelstrom. As someone else said, that might not have been very far away at any time. Adam's starting to get healthier might have been the sort of wake-up call that would have helped this girl. My first thought was that she had been a prostitute but I think it is more likely she had met him before through some sort of sex group or maybe she had even hired him!!!!

What he was doing with the pills is a good question someone posed. But maybe she was just downing them indiscriminately and they weren't even painkillers. But mixing the wrong prescriptions can be deadly no matter what they are.

My take on the scene, in context of the rest of the movie, is that it punctures the usual rom-com- or porn-based sex fantasy.

The film-makers seem to expect viewers to to be skeptical about sex-addiction (rightly probably). In other addiction movies, there is the standard hitting-the-bottom scene where the viewer says, "oh, that's why being a drunk is a bad thing instead of just being fun like I thought." So a film about AA might show you a scene: See that guy who seemed like a friendly fun-loving guy who drinks, well he just crashed a car into the house, ruined the wedding cake and his brothers' wedding day, and made his family miserable and they may never forgive him. See THAT"S why he has to go into treatment. Ok, I see now. Or a film about meth or crack addiction will show you the sad emaciated crack whore with bad skin and teeth and you're supposed to recognize, ok crack isn't fun because this is what's really going on.

So back to Thanks for Sharing: the Becky scene is to show you what's wrong with sex addiction. But more generally, what's wrong with shallow uninformed sex with someone you have no relationship with.

At the beginning of the Becky scene a typical guy viewer thinks here is the attractive younger woman who's good to go, and in a porn-style scenario the daddy thing is supposed to be just another turn on. And this is generally true in non-porn hollywood rom-com sex scenes too--strangers meet, click, have sex, then later get to know each other and fall in love.

It's a formula that Thanks for Sharing wants to debunk.

So, instead, the Becky scene shows all the painful emotional disorder and sad sexual history that's going on when a younger woman gets it on with an older guy, even an attractive one like Mark R.

The film wants to lead you into expecting the usual sexy formula and then surprise you with the least sexy result. It's what the film believes is the truth about this kind of hook-up (or more likely to be the truth). We're supposed to realize that Adam's own recognition of how sad and empty these encounters are is part of the reason he got into recovery.

I'm not saying this kind of hook-up is an emotional disorder melt-down self-degradation or not. But the film believes it is and the scene is persuasive as far as it goes.

In other words, if the sight of a crack whore reminds you " ok crack isn't fun because this is what's really going on,"
the Becky scene is supposed to teach you "that's what's really going on" in this kind of hook up you thought was just sexy.

I'm guessing people who don't buy it are those who've had pretty ok anonymous sex encounters that were sexy enough or satisfying enough not to regret. Adam's character would probably say: the emotional disorder and degradation were still there, you just didn't notice them or weren't around when it came out later. Or you don't have have enough self-awareness (or are too addicted) to realize it.

Not for me to decide. But interesting.

that was very sad,
she lost her shit in a way that really showed how damaged she was :(