The SessionsDirected by Ben Lewin
Starring:
John Hawkes, Helen Hunt, William H. Macy
Grade: C+
Adapted
from an article by the film’s disabled central character, Mark O’Brien, “The
Sessions” feels the burden of its source material. An insightful but nevertheless
compromised account from a remarkable man, it distinctly feels as if director
Ben Lewin is rashly trying to extrapolate events into a feature-length
narrative. The main story involving O’Brien and sex surrogate Cheryl (both
played expertly by John Hawkes and Helen Hunt) unfolds over six ‘sessions’ in
which a touching journey takes place between the pair, but the script insists
on plumbing worthless humour from Christian paranoia and the strange
ambivalence of William H. Macy’s catholic priest towards the subject of sex.
This is a warm story with a healthy attitude towards intimacy and human
connection, but even the acting can’t transform this into a substantative
exercise for the big screen.
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