After making a splash at this year's Sundance film festival, the provocatively themed "The Sessions" has created a fair amount of buzz both for its subject matter and for its performances. Based on the true story of Mark O'Brien, the movie tackles a topic that might make some uncomfortable--sex, specifically sex and the disabled. In an era where any amount of violence and gore is perfectly acceptable, I still don't understand why it is verboten for American movies to deal with sexual issues in a frank and adult manner. So I appreciate that writer/director Ben Lewin made "The Sessions" with a matter-of-fact boldness uncommon in today's movies. The movie is frank, explicit, and both emotionally and physically revealing. Instead of feeling unnecessarily prurient, however, the movie is surprisingly life affirming. It is sensitive about its topic, but also quite humorous. I was afraid the film might be a little too clinical, depressing or dispassionate but it is, instead, eminently relatable and entertaining.O'Brien, a paralyzed man who spent his nights in an iron lung, has tried to live the best life that he can. He's a professional writer, and has attempted to get as much normalcy out of his days as possible. At 36, though, he is thinking more and more about relationships, love, and sex. He wants to experience human intimacy in all of its forms. After exposing himself emotionally, he decides to seek out a more straightforward answer to losing his virginity. With the advice of his priest (William Macy) and the assistance of his aide (Moon Bloodgood), he contacts a sex surrogate to assist. The remainder of the movie details these sessions in much explicitness. They have surprising candor, insight and impact. The movie does not ask you to feel sorry for O'Brien (a great decision) because of his disability, but to experience this journey with him as a man. In other hands, "The Sessions" might have had an entirely different tone. But Lewin keeps things lively, grounded and believable.
The ever-impressive John Hawkes is a revelation as O'Brien. This great character actor is really coming into his own, and this is easily his most realized starring performance. From years as a side kick (Deadwood), he has startled with a number of creepier roles (Oscar nominated for Winter's Bone). His performance here ranks with the very best of the year, though. Obviously, the role is reliant on minimal movement but Hawkes does everything he needs just through facial expressions, dialogue, and voice over. He is matched by Helen Hunt in what I think is her best role as well. Hunt doesn't shy away from anything in this piece. Her choices are fearless and bold. This is a pairing that you won't soon forget. When these two are together, "The Sessions" rivals anything else on screen this year. It's not a perfect film, however, some of the supporting roles or side choices are a bit less developed. But overall, this is a joyful expression of life. While the movie is infused with an underlying sadness, this is not a depressing experience but a hopeful one. A nice character piece for adult audiences. KGHarris, 12/12.
O'Brien's decision was prompted as a result of research he was doing for an article on the sex lives of disabled people. After interviewing a number of disabled people, and seeing how many of them were in fact enjoying an active and rewarding sex life in spite of their disabilities, O'Brien began to consider his own sex life, or rather, his complete lack of one, and how he might go about changing that. The issue was further complicated for O'Brien by the fact that he was a devout Catholic and what he was contemplating sex outside of marriage was a moral issue as well as a physical one. So in addition to consulting a sex therapist for help with his physical challenges, he also consulted with his local priest for what was for him a moral challenge as well.
It is important to understand the exact nature of O'Brien's situation. He was not paralyzed, at least not neurologically. Polio afflicts the muscles, leaving them weak and atrophied, but not the nerves, and so although he couldn't move, O'Brien could still feel and his 'equipment' still worked, albeit in moments that were more embarrassing than anything that could be considered pleasurable, given that the only people ever touching him or seeing him naked were doctors, nurses and attendants. And he could survive outside of the iron lung for a few hours at a time, though he had to be kept on a gurney which let him lie prone. But this made it possible for him to do things like attend university where he ultimately earned his degrees in English and journalism (and later to have his sessions with the sex therapist). Ultimately though he always had to be put back into the iron lung as his own lungs were only strong enough to function on their own for those few hours.
The story of O'Brien's quest for non-virginity is brought vividly to life in first-class performances carried out by a marvelous cast. John Hawkes (best known for his Oscar-nominated supporting performance in 2010's Winter's Bone) does an outstanding job as Mark O'Brien, rising to the challenge not only of portraying a man solely through the use of his head and face but also finding O'Brien's voice, bringing out his combination of intelligence and humor along with his anxieties and vulnerabilities, both physical and emotional. Helen Hunt (best known for her Oscar-winning performance in 1997's As Good As It Gets) is equally outstanding as Cheryl Cohen Greene, the sex therapist who works with O'Brien to help him achieve his goal of becoming a fully realized sexual person, bringing out Greene's own struggle between her commitment to always maintaining a professional distance with her clients and her inability to not be moved by O'Brien's mix of raw vulnerability and nervous courage. And his ability to find humor in spite of his situation. "I have to believe in God," O'Brien says at one point. "I would find it absolutely intolerable not to be able to blame someone for all this."
The supporting cast is also quite excellent. William H. Macy does a nice turn as Father Brendan, the priest O'Brien turns to for guidance with his dilemma. In what could easily have been a mere comic cliché role, Macy instead delivers a nuanced performance as a man who seriously weighs the church's position against the sheer humanity of the situation he's been presented with and then goes with his basic humanity, telling O'Brien "I have a feeling that God is going to give you a free pass on this one. Go for it." Macy does bring a gentle humor to the situation, showing Brendan's awkward discomfort at advising someone with such an unusual problem, but gives it a solid grounding by showing Brendan's commitment to giving the best spiritual guidance he can, even if he does feel completely out of his depth. Moon Bloodgood delivers a quietly funny performance as Vera, the supportive attendant who accompanies O'Brien on his interviews for his article and to his sessions with Greene, doing her best to be stoically professional even as her highly expressive face reveals her inner reactions to the things she sees and hears in the course of her duties. And Jennifer Kumiyama is quite engaging as Carmen, a wheelchair-bound woman with Arthrogryposis who's cheerfully chatty about her sex life when O'Brien interviews her for his article and who ends up letting O'Brien and Greene use her apartment for their initial sessions.
As both director and screenwriter, Ben Lewin brings a special insight and sensitivity to the film, being someone who was afflicted with polio himself as a child and who must use arm braces to move about. In addition to drawing on his own experiences while writing the screenplay, Lewin worked closely with Susan Fernback, O'Brien's partner of several years, and with Greene, wanting the script to be as faithful to O'Brien the man as humanly possible. The music score by Marco Beltrami is appropriately subtle, present in the background and discretely adding to the tone or feel of a scene but never threatening to distract from or overwhelm what's happening on the screen. In some movies the director depends on the score to tell you what you're supposed to be feeling, but The Sessions has no such need.
But it's Hawkes and Hunt who carry the heart of the movie and they do it marvelously well. Hawkes' challenge is first to portray O'Brien's extreme limitations and vulnerability, and then, having done that, to get you to see beyond those things to the man O'Brien really was. Not without some cost though. One of the things Hawkes did was to lie on a soccer ball-sized foam rubber sphere during filming to simulate O'Brien's curvature of the spine. However effective the results were visually, the constant pressure against Hawkes' spine resulted in him developing back problems. Hunt's challenge was similar in that her role required her to spend a lot of her screen time naked, playing a woman who was both comfortable and professional at being naked and in a sexual situation with her clients, and then to slowly reveal Greene's growing discomfort with the fact that in spite of her professionalism she cannot be completely dispassionate about O'Brien, that there is something about him that is connecting with her and making her feel for him. It's a tribute to the chemistry that develops between these two fine actors that the sexual aspect of their situation ultimately becomes secondary to the emotional and human connection that's being made.
In 1997, O'Brien was the subject of a short film by Jessica Yu, Breathing Lessons: The Life and Work of Mark O'Brien, which went on to win the Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Subject. In it, he makes the statement "The two mythologies about disabled people break down to: one, we can't do anything, or two, we can do everything. But the truth is, we're just human." That, more than anything else, sums up what The Sessions is all about.
Highly, highly recommended.How do you lose your virginity if you have been confined to an iron lung most of your life? A couple of years ago, I had some lively discussions on this topic with one of my JayFlix friends, a health-care professional who was attending a young quadriplegic. Now this film-festival favorite addresses the question, only this man isn't paralyzed with no physical sensations, instead he is a polio survivor confined to an iron lung since childhood. Furthermore, he is a witty, well-educated and frustrated adult.
Based on the real-life story of Mark O'Brien (1949-1999), a Berkeley poet and journalist, he was the first severely disabled student to graduate from college, earning a bachelor's degree in 1982, and acceptance to a post graduate program. His inspiring story has been told once before in a documentary film, "Breathing Lessons," directed by Jessica Yu. It won an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short in 1997. This version is written and directed by the acclaimed Ben Lewin, himself a polio survivor who requires crutches.
We watch:
* John Hawkes ("Contagion") is brilliant as Mark O'Brien, who wryly tells his priest he wants to experience sex before his "Use-By date" expires. Hawkes is an amazing chameleon who transforms himself from film to film, each time I am stunned to discover who I have just watched. There is some well-deserved Oscar buzz about this film.
* Helen Hunt ("As Good as it Gets") is Cheryl Cohen Greene, a professional therapist hired to provide basic instruction in human sexuality. Her therapy is bluntly anatomical and unembarrassed while at the same time, extremely sensitive and insightful. His responses are usually humorous and disarming. Hunt is fearless but convincing, and is beautifully naked a lot of the time.
* William H. Macy ("The Lincoln Lawyer") is Father Brendon, our hero's priest, who fears he might have unleashed some major sinning by counseling his parishioner to "Go for it!" This priest spent his childhood on a farm, so his observations are very forthright and practical.
This film proves two points:
1) Our biggest sex organ is between our ears;
2) One of the most seductive things about another person may be an ability to make us laugh. O'Brien, when asked if he is religious, replies, "Of course I am! I've gotta have someone to blame!"
There are many happy spots in this inspiring piece and as we exited the theater, we were subdued but satisfied...smile....I'll be happy when Amazon notifies me of the DVD release.
Read Best Reviews of The Sessions (2012) Here
This is an autobiographical story of poet Mark O'Brien who was stricken by polio and spent much of his life in an iron lung. In 1988 at the age of 38 he decides he wants to lose his virginity. A sure bet for an Oscar nomination, John Hawkes plays O'Brien. Hawkes' already thin frame is reduced even more to where his muscle tone approaches that of a polio victim. His acting is mostly confined to his vocal inflections and facial expressions.Before going much further, let's be clear about one thing. This isn't a dower, conventional weepy film. If anything it's uplifting. O'Brien is a funny guy and some of the scenes between him and his understanding priest (William H. Macy) are some of the best in the film. Once O'Brien gets the Church's go ahead, he hires a sex surrogate (excellent Helen Hunt) to guide him through his ultimate goal. While there is nothing overly salacious in the scenes involving O'Brien and Cheryl (Hunt), they are pretty graphic. Ms. Hunt in particular, leaves little to the imagination.
Perhaps under-appreciated in the film is O'Brien's caretakers. One, played by Moon Bloodgood, I found particularly interesting. I would have liked to have seen her role a bit meatier. Perhaps it is no surprise, that in spite of O'Brien's physical limitations, he's quite the hit with the ladies, especially those closest to him. Director and writer Ben Lewin does a nice balancing act, given the sexual and religious overtones. The movie is well photographed giving a strong sense of reality of Berkeley, California in the late 1980's. Excellent film.
Want The Sessions (2012) Discount?
Ever since "The Sessions" made its smash debut at the Sundance Film Festival in early 2012, this movie has gotten the reputation of "that movie with a lot of Helen Hunt nudity in it", and while it is true there are a number of nude scenes in the movie, I hope you will agree that, after you will hopefully have seen this film, this movie surely is about a lot more than that."The Sessions" (2012 release; 95 min.) brings the (real life) story of Mark O'Brien (played by John Hawkes), a Bay-area poet who lives in an iron lung as a result of polio when he was a little kid. In his late 30s, Mark wonders what if would be like "to be with a woman in the biblical sense", as he confides to his priest (played by William H. Macy). With the priest's blessing, Mark eventually gets in contact with a sex therapist, who in turn gets him in contact with Cheryl (played by Helen Hunt), a sex surrogate. Over the course of several sessions (hence the fiml's title), Cheryl gives "body awareness" tips and experiences. I'm not going to spoil your viewing experience by disclosing how it all plays out, but I will say that the last half hour of the movie is bittersweet and very touching, and I welled up more than once.
Several comments: first and foremost, John Hawke's performance will simply blow you away. I cannot imagine that he will not get an Oscar nomination for this. Of course, Helen Hunt's performance surely is Oscar-worthy as well, and not only because of the daring and frequent (but never exploitive) nudity. The immediate subject matter of the movie (sex for the disabled) is handled with care and grace. The buzz for this movie has been steadily growing in recent months, and I must say I was quite surprised how poorly attended the screening was which I attended a few weekends ago here in Cincinnati. Maybe it was just a coincidence. I sure hope so, as I very much enjoyed this movie from start to finish. "The Sessions" is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
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