The Session Video

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American independent drama film written and directed by Ben Lewin. It is based on an essay by Mark O'Brien, a poet paralyzed from the neck down due to polio who hired a sex surrogate to lose his virginity. John Hawkes and Helen Hunt star as O'Brien and sex surrogate Cheryl Cohen Greene respectively.
Getting laid is a bitch for most people. For San Francisco poet and journalist Mark O'Brien (John Hawkes), it's damn near impossible. Since he contracted polio at age six, O'Brien has spent all but a few hours a day in an iron lung. Now, just two years shy of being a 40-year-old virgin, he decides to see a sex surrogate.
What Hollywood hack makes this stuff up? As it turns out, no one. The Sessions, based on O'Brien's experiences while living in Berkeley in 1988, is the stuff of real life. If you're thinking, "How depressing," snap out of it. Writer-director Ben Lewin, drawing on O'Brien's essay "On Seeing a Sex Surrogate"

The Seession Movie

Hawkes and his technical virtuosity are astounding. But it's how Hawkes uses his voice and expressive eyes to reveal the inner Mark that makes his performance a triumph.

Lewin, who also suffered some of the debilitating effects of polio as a child, knows this material from the inside. The sex scenes with O'Brien and surrogate Cheryl Cohen Greene (Helen Hunt) are handled with rare delicacy and blunt, bubbling humor. "Nice shirt," Cheryl tells the painfully vulnerable Mark, as he lies in bed awaiting her first touch. Hunt plays the role full-out, no nonsense about her nudity or the intricacies of a job she must reconcile with being a wife and mother. Hunt is spectacular in every way, finding just the right balance between tough and tender. William H. Macy also scores mightily as Father Brendan, the priest who helps O'Brien reconcile sex surrogacy with devout Catholicism in ways you won't see coming. OK, no more spoilers about The Sessions. Just see it. This movie will take a piece out of you.

The Session Wiki

The Sessions was considered one of the  Sundance breakout hits.John Hawkes received two prolonged standing ovations at the film's screening. It was praised by critics at the festival as accessible, enjoyable, and light-hearted.Variety's Peter Debruge said, "... performances are paramount in a film like this, and Hawkes works some kind of miracle despite the self-evident physical limitations of the role. Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter said: "... most decisively, in audience terms, it argues in favor of living a full life, whatever one’s personal constraints, of not being intimidated by societal or religious dogma or, most of all, by one’s fears... Hawkes’ full-bodied vocal and emotional characterization stands in stark contrast to his frail corporal presence. Hunt’s performance may be physically bold but is equally marked by its maturity and composure.".Kerry Weber of America Magazine criticized the depiction of the priest, saying: "His character constantly spouts platitudes that make him sound like his seminary training took place in the self-help section of Barnes & Noble." Weber also criticizes the film for not adhering closely enough to the writings of the real-life Mark. As such, the film does not give due attention to the complex subject matter. Weber says: "Unfortunately for the viewer, “The Sessions” doesn’t make things quite complicated enough

The Session Review

Getting laid is a bitch for most people. For San Francisco poet and journalist Mark O'Brien (John Hawkes), it's damn near impossible. Since he contracted polio at age six, O'Brien has spent all but a few hours a day in an iron lung. Now, just two years shy of being a 40-year-old virgin, he decides to see a sex surrogate.

What Hollywood hack makes this stuff up? As it turns out, no one. The Sessions, based on O'Brien's experiences while living in Berkeley in 1988, is the stuff of real life. If you're thinking, "How depressing," snap out of it. Writer-director Ben Lewin, drawing on O'Brien's essay "On Seeing a Sex Surrogate" (published in 1990), has crafted an exhilarating gift of a movie that's funny, touching and vital. And Hawkes (Winter's Bone, Deadwood) does the kind of acting that awards were invented for. Having learned to twist his body, use a mouth stick to dial a phone and type, and suggest the sheer effort it took for O'Brien to simply

The Session Trailer

Writer and director Ben Lewin, a polio survivor himself, first read about O'Brien's experiences with a sex surrogate from O'Brien's article "On Seeing a Sex Surrogate" on the Internet.[9] He was looking for material on sex and the disabled for a sitcom project, and stumbled upon the article.[8] Lewin explained, "I felt that if I could do on film what he had done to me with his writing, then I could potentially deliver something powerful."[9] While writing the script, Lewin drew from his own experiences with polio and worked closely with Susan Fernbach, O'Brien's partner during the last years of his life, and Cheryl Cohen Greene, the surrogate.[9]
To simulate O'Brien's posture, John Hawkes used a soccer-ball-sized piece of foam which he laid onto the left side of his back in order to curve his spine.[10] Consequently, some of his organs began to migrate, and he was told by his chiropractor that his spine now has not enough movement.[10] Nonetheless, he said it is "a minute amount of pain compared to what many disabled people face minute-to-minute."[10] Hawkes also practiced dialing the phone using a "http://www.torrentbee.com/search/ben-lewin.htmll".[10]