The Sessions explores two topics Hollywood is notoriously terrified of: the disabled, and real, honest-to-Oh God! sex. Tackling both subjects with warmth, intelligence and humour, Ben Lewin’s beautifully acted film examines how sex is one big, challenging step for a man, intimacy a giant step for mankind.
John Hawkes, best known for bringing a sinister edge to his roles in Winter’s Bone and Martha Marcy May Marlene, contorts his spine to play Mark O’Brien, a polio survivor paralysed from the neck down and dependent on an iron lung to keep him alive. Mark’s imagination and joyful curiosity about the world persist, and Hawkes brings as much mischief, longing and excitement to his eyes as he does sharp concaves to his body.
Following a series of unrequited crushes on his care-takers, Mark hires sex surrogate Cheryl (Helen Hunt) to teach him about sex and physical intimacy. And help him lose his virginity.
There is a refreshing boldness to both Hunt’s frank, complex performance and The Sessions itself, as both prove completely comfortable with nudity and sex, without ever aiming for mere titillation.
Instead, physical contact is used to explore a deep sense of intimacy, overcoming both Mark’s inexperience and Cheryl’s self-preserving emotional distance. Mark’s conversations with his progressive priest (a delightful William H. Macy) also explore Mark’s religion with respect. In the process he acknowledges both the sexual shame and the loving charity that the Church can bestow.
The combination of disability, nudity, religion and true source material could easily have read as manipulative Oscar bait, but The Sessions’ greatest asset is its light tone.
Instead of a tragic, tear-jerking tale, the witty script and playful performances result in a uniquely funny tale that’s sweet and circumspect. Featuring an Oscar-worthy performance from Hawkes, The Sessions is a gentle examination of carnality and compassion, revealing how sex can satisfy not just a person’s basest desir