Following the recent release of the excellent French comedy/drama The Intouchables, comes the equally impressive American independent The Sessions.
In 2006, Australian filmmaker Ben Lewin (Lucky Break) was surfing the net for what he calls “tasteless material” on sex and the disabled for a television project provocatively titled The Gimp. An essay he stumbled upon instead led to an entirely different prospect.
Upon reading On Seeing A Sex Surrogate, written by talented journalist and poet Mark O’Brien in 1990, Lewin was instantly drawn to O’Brien’s story.
Profoundly disabled since the onset of polio at six years old, though still acutely cognisant of physical sensation, O’Brien was confined to a gurney when not confined to an iron lung. In his 30’s, he decided he was finally going to lose his virginity. The essay, tapped out by Mark using a mouth stick, is his frank, moving chronicle of his emergence from sexual dormancy.
The story resonated with Lewin who has also endured polio since childhood and admitted recently in an Australian Story profile - perhaps with tongue in cheek - to a professional and personal pre-occupation with sex. The resulting film, partly based on O’Brien’s article and co-produced by Lewin’s wife Judi Levine, opens up a bluntly honest and humorous discussion on what is arguably still a taboo topic.
We meet Mark (John Hawkes, Deadwood) in Berkley California in 1988 as he explores just how he can lose his virginity. He’s quietly riddled with guilt and feels like a burden, like the chewing gum that clings to the sole of society and he’s repulsed by his sexual self.
After consultation with his new padre, the wavy-haired, hippy Father Brendan (the ever engaging William H. Macy, Fargo) he enlists the help of matter-of-fact sex surrogate Cheryl Cohen Greene (Helen Hunt, As Good As It Gets). Cheryl in no uncertain terms tells Mark she’s no prostitute. She’s not after his repeat business; she just wants to help him on his way to a fulfilling sex life.
In his iron lung, Mark asks a visage of the Virgin Mary hanging on his wall just what in heaven’s name he’s got himself into. Cheryl too, despite her experience, is, initially at least, just as apprehensive.
What transcends Mark and Cheryl’s often amusing, fumbling sexual experiences is the emotional impact these have on both of them. For Cheryl, an unexpected emotional bond - profoundly and deeply felt - emerges and it’s this question of the power of human connection that’s a through line in The Sessions.
Mark wonders out loud “What happens when people become attached to each other? What happens next?”
Mark wonders out loud “What happens when people become attached to each other? What happens next?”
The Sessions compassionately explores the vital importance of physical and emotional intimacy for the disabled and the debilitating isolation that a condition like polio can bring.
“My desire to love and be loved sexually is equaled by my isolation and my fear of breaking out of it,” wrote O’Brien in his 1990 essay. “The fear is twofold. I fear getting nothing but rejections. But I also fear being accepted and loved. For if this latter happens, I will curse myself for all the time and life that I have wasted.”
With the poignancy, The Sessions offers a large helping of wry, understated humour led by Mark’s narration and dryly witty, upbeat disposition. When asked if he’s religious, Mark quips that he must be, for whom else to blame for his predicament if not God?
For an American film, The Sessions is amazingly frank sexually – both in dialogue and in act (felt all the more keenly if you’re watching it as the lone male in a cinema sparsely populated by late middle aged women!). Lewin says he circumvented Hollywood conservatism by scraping together the less than $1million budget from private investors including friends from Melbourne. While Hunt spends a good deal of screen time naked, the sex is handled tastefully and isn't at all tawdry.
As Mark, the plucky poet whose pin-sharp mind lays trapped in a body ravaged, Hawkes - who gave a chilling Academy award nominated performance in 2010’s Winter’s Bone - is remarkable. His is a magnetic, perceptive, nuanced and warmly engaging performance made all the more remarkable given he’s mainly using his face as an acting tool. (He placed a device, ominously labeled a ‘torture ball’ under his back to contort his physique). So convincing is he that a doctor friend of Lewin’s believed he had found a remarkable disabled leading man.
Hunt, who has at times been a grating presence on screen, has never been better, endowing great tenderness and authenticity to wife, mother and sexual collaborator Cheryl. The chemistry between Hunt and Hawkes is also deeply authentic as this unexpected emotional human connection develops.
If I have any reservation about the film it’s the niggling feeling (in hindsight) that Lewin has employed a little too much levity in his approach given the subject matter. But then, that’s also one of the strongest aspects of the film. It’s never dismissive and always compassionate, taking a very confronting subject and making it accessible without losing emotional punch. For that, all involved are to be commended.
Compassionate and tender, blunt and thought provoking, confronting yet accessible and frequently humorous, The Sessions is a warm and moving cinematic experience.
Genre: Drama/Comedy
Year: 2012
Genre: Drama/Comedy
Year: 2012
Starring: John Hawkes, Helen Hunt, William H. Macy, Moon Bloodgood, W. Earl Brown, Robin Weigert.
Director: Ben Lewin.
Written By: Ben Lewin. Based on the essay On Seeing A Sex Surrogate by Mark O’Brien.
Rated: MA 15+
Run Time: 96 minutes.
Out: Now.
Review by James Mitchell.
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