Starring: John Hawkes, Helen Hunt, William H. Macy, Moon Bloodgood, Alan Arkin
Director: Ben Lewin
Running time: 93 minutes
Released by: Fox Searchlight UK
Out: 18th January.
Mark O'Brien (Hawkes) is a journalist, but unlike most scribes he lives 90% of his day in an iron lung. A survivor of polio, he relates how his parents never expected him to reach his fifth birthday, but by sheer force of will, he has survived. However in his quieter moments he knows he has missed out on much of what most people take for granted. Though he maintains feelings throughout his body, it doesn't respond to his wishes. He can't run, jump or walk... never mind having the opportunity to enjoy any real form of physical intimacy
A devout Catholic in intention at least, he reaches out to local priest Father Brendan (Macy) to ask whether hiring a 'sex surrogate' would be against scripture. Brendan appreciates the ethical minefield, but admits that he thinks it would be a strange God that would deny Mark some moments of pleasure in his foreshortened life. Mark seeks out the services of married soccer-mom-cum-sex-surrogate Cheryl (Hunt) who specialises in helping the disabled and who quickly explains the rules to him: she's not a prostitute, she's a therapist, that their time together will be strictly limited and that she will work with him on a physical level without the romantic nature getting in the way.
Thus begins an extraordinary journey for both Mark and Cheryl as their physical encounters with each other have profound effects on both their outlooks to life.
Any film that deals with sex and the disabled is obviously going to be scrutinised closely. Even with good intentions, it must avoid a number of potential and obvious pot-holes - from being patronising to being depressing, from making broad generalisations to being too flippant. So it's quite remarkable how well The Sessions, inspired by a true story, brings the subject to the screen and imbues it with enough elements to educate AND entertain the audience, providing real insights, bittersweet moments and tension-breaking humour that stays with you.
The cast are uniformly great. The often under-rated Helen Hunt gives a bravura turn that requires stripped down emotions and actual full-frontal nudity, an actress comfortable enough in her own physical skin to give us a character who is comfortable in hers - never titillating but frank and uncompromising. Hawkes also gives a performance that could well earn him some major awards... expressing his passion, frustrations and character through merely his voice and above-the-shoulder movements. He and Ben Lewin's script/direction give Mark a sense of completeness that friends of the real O'Brien say reflect the late writer's personality. Macy is also understated as down-to-earth holy man who wants to provide good but pragmatic guidance.
Despite the quite explicit action on screen, the audience quickly loses any sense of voyeurism that might be there to begin with as The Sessions becomes a character-study on life. There are moments of both laugh-out-loud humour that ease our nervousness and punctuate some of the more bittersweet elements and the result is a film that is ultimately never too bleak or saccharine.
It's not perfect. Adam Arkin as Cheryl's understanding husband is too underwritten to feel realistic and while Moon Bloodgood is a good and proven performer, the naturally glamorous actress seems to be strangely miscast in the role of Mark's new personal assistant - requiring her to be constantly 'dowdy' (perhaps leaving a Hollywood-conditioned audience wondering if Mark will notice the innate beauty beneath stereotypical librarian glasses). Thankfully, Bloodgood's character doesn't conform to such sexist formula. However while the film has no problem with Hunt's nudity, it doesn't go unnoticed that the camerawork on Hawke is much less revealing for no real reason. Sexism clearly does exist, at least in some regard.
The film's certificate reflects the adult subject-matter, language and nudity, but in every other way, The Sessions is a mature look at a difficult subject and an outing that will really offend no-one. Life-affirming in the face of death, it takes the concepts of love, sex and intimacy and strips away the Hollywood glamour to reveal that, in real life, all three are wonderfully messy, ridiculous and totally worth it.
9/10
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