Cast: John Hawkes, Helen Hunt, William H. Macy
Director: Ben Lewin
Country: USA
Genre: Drama
Official Trailer: Here
Editor’s Notes: For an additional perspective on The Sessions, check out Daniel Tucker’s review.
All too often, as a lover of cinema and all the artistry it can bring through visual storytelling, it’s easy to ignore some of the smaller achievements. While certainly no fan of the recent “mumblecore” subgenre of independent filmmaking, I find myself often trying to at least be aware of smaller films that get lost in the shuffle of Hollywood mega-blockbusters and beautifully rendered awards season fare. The Sessions is just that kind of film, and it’s all too easy to let a film as simple and small as this one fall by the wayside. But sometimes, it’s a breath of fresh air to encounter something so emotionally honest and naked.
The Sessions is just that kind of film, and it’s all too easy to let a film as simple and small as this one fall by the wayside. But sometimes, it’s a breath of fresh air to encounter something so emotionally honest and naked.
Based on the true story of Mark O’Brien, the film follows the paralyzed poet’s quest to lose his virginity before it’s too late. Confined to an iron lung, Mark has never once been intimate with anyone in his life, let alone sexually active. As a poet, he finds himself hopelessly romantic, particularly towards his new assistant, who shows him true kindness and compassion that he misreads as love. After an embarrassing confession of his feelings for her, he seeks out a sex therapist to help him finally cross the final threshold into adulthood: losing his virginity.
There’s a rare honesty to the proceedings that isn’t present in most films. While it’s easy to fall into the trap of being too serious or too immature about the subject of sexuality, The Sessions strikes a delicate balance between the two, ever teetering the tightrope between comedy and drama that so few films walk successfully. It’s all too easy for sex to be something that we giggle at, mostly because it’s a subject society has conditioned us to be uncomfortable with. Fortunately, the film is able to find that middle ground between the seriousness and levity of the subject matter, no doubt due at least in part to a pair of tremendous performances from John Hawkes and Helen Hunt.
Helen Hunt may actually have the harder job here, playing sex therapist Cheryl Greene. At once nurturing, mature, and distant, she is faced with the task of helping a man who has no sexual experience whatsoever, and a somewhat naïve view on the subject to boot. Despite his best instincts, he can’t help but let the poet in him take a romanticized view of things, and it’s Cheryl’s job to both de-romanticize the act of sex but also to help Mark enjoy the psychological and developmental implications of it. She never once loses her patience with him, even when his anxieties and naïveté are frustrating. It’s an astonishingly controlled and nuanced turn that could easily go underappreciated, and one of the finest performances in the actress’s long career.
It’s an astonishingly controlled and nuanced turn that could easily go underappreciated, and one of the finest performances in the actress’s long career.
John Hawkes is equally great in his role as Mark O’ Brien. A man trapped in the prison of his own body, he is forced throughout life to be introspective, perhaps fatally so. He often over-thinks every social situation he’s in, especially his sessions with Cheryl, which lead to many complications towards his ultimate goal. Hawkes never lets the character fall into self-pity, however, and it allows the audience to view him as a human being, rather than some sort of cripple or oddball. At the end of the day, he’s just a guy trying to get laid, and it’s that honesty that elevates Hawkes’ turn into true performance art. Throw in a fun pair of supporting turns from William H. Macy & Moon Bloodgood, as well as delightful cameos from Hawkes’ fellow Deadwood alumni W. Earl Brown and Robin Weigert, and it’s as good an ensemble as one could ask for.
While Ben Lewin’s minimal direction & often overly endearing script keep the film from ascending to true greatness, it’s the combined efforts of the cast and story that help The Sessions stand apart. The word I kept coming back to throughout the film was “honest”, and I stand by that. It’s a film about not only about being mature adults when faced with sexuality, but also about how sexuality gives birth to that level of maturity, both emotional and intellectual.
[notification type=”star”]79/100 ~ GOOD. While Ben Lewin’s minimal direction & often overly endearing script keep the film from ascending to true greatness, it’s the combined efforts of the cast and story that help The Sessions stand apart. [/notification]
