The Sessions- Written and directed by Ben Lewin, starring John Hawkes, Helen Hunt, and William H. Macy - Rated R
The Sessions is one of those movies with a vague title
that suddenly appears and, in this case, garners immense critical
adoration. I’ll be honest; I was
completely unaware of this movie until I saw mentions of Oscars for stars John
Hawkes and Helen Hunt. That’s never a
good thing for someone like me. If the
first thing I hear about a movie is that it deserves awards, I become
suspicious. Shouldn’t the movie be able
to sell tickets on its own without sounding the awards trumpets? Also, a movie seems like Oscar bait if all I
know about it is who is in it and that they should get trophies. Despite that off-putting introduction to The
Sessions, I ended up really enjoying the film.
The plot of The Sessions definitely seems like Oscar bait
as well. It’s the story of Mark O’Brien,
a man who lives most of his days in an iron lung, and his quest to lose his
virginity. A guy in an iron lung has
sex. We’ve got a disability, based on a
true story, and it is a unique subject.
Yeah, I see why the awards are being mentioned, but this is not about
winning awards, not by a long shot.
First off, this is not a life story.
We are told through narration and old footage that Mark has accomplished
many things despite his condition, and has established himself as a
poet/writer. If this were a life story,
it would have started at his birth, and ended with him writing a poem or
something from his iron lung. That might
have been touching or whatever, but it would not be enjoyable. Thankfully, The Sessions is about a
specific moment in O’Brien’s life when he decided to look into sex amongst the
disabled population, and wanted to experience it for himself.
The story is interesting and never delves into melodrama,
but what elevates it is Hawkes’s performance.
As a physical performance, it is impressive in that he has to basically
lie prone the entire film and be carried around and helped. It must have been trying to lie around like
that throughout the shoot. More
impressive is the voice Hawkes used for the film. I have never heard the real O’Brien speak,
but Hawkes truly sounded like a Bostonian who had a reduced lung capacity.
Helen Hunt plays the “sex surrogate,” and she does that
Helen Hunt thing that she does just fine.
I just can’t really consider her an actress because she just seems to be
the same character in everything that she does.
Plus, her forehead is distractingly smooth. I don’t know what’s going on there, but it’s
not natural.
William H. Macy was a bright spot in the film as a priest
who befriends O’Brien. His scenes led to
the most humor as Macy got to run the gamut of facial expressions as he heard
O’Brien’s blunt confessions.
The Sessions, for all its Oscar possibilities, ended up
being surprisingly insubstantial. I
enjoyed it and thought the performances were fine, but nothing about it stuck
with me. It’s not that I need a message
to a film, but I do like to feel something when I’m supposed to, but everything
in this film was light hearted and trivial.
There was no emotional payoff, and it seemed like the filmmakers wanted
me to tear up at the end or something.
Maybe I’m missing the point.
Perhaps it’s simply meant to be a feel good movie. If that’s the case, I felt fine after seeing
The Sessions. I wouldn’t give it any
trophies, though.
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