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Tender, funny, and touching, The Sessions provides an acting showcase for its talented stars and proves it's possible for Hollywood to produce a grown-up movie about sex. Read critic reviews
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Rent The Sessions on Amazon Prime Video, Vudu, Apple TV, or buy it on Amazon Prime Video, Vudu, Apple TV.
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Movie Info
Though a childhood bout with polio left him dependent on an iron lung, Mark O'Brien (John Hawkes) maintains a career as a journalist and poet. A writing assignment dealing with sex and the disabled piques Mark's curiosity, and he decides to investigate the possibility of experiencing sex himself. When his overtures toward a caregiver (Annika Marks) scare her away, he books an appointment with sex surrogate Cheryl Cohen Green (Helen Hunt) to lose his virginity.
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Rating: R (Graphic Nudity|Frank Dialogue|Strong Sexuality)
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Genre: Comedy, Drama, Biography
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Original Language: English
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Director: Ben Lewin
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Producer: Judi Levine, Stephen Nemeth
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Writer: Ben Lewin
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Release Date (Theaters): limited
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Release Date (Streaming):
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Box Office (Gross USA): $6.0M
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Runtime:
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Distributor: Fox Searchlight
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Production Co: Fox Searchlight
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Sound Mix: Dolby Digital
Cast & Crew
News & Interviews for The Sessions
Critic Reviews for The Sessions
Audience Reviews for The Sessions
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Surprisingly good. Really expected this to be worthy and a bit of a yawner, but it's actually quite funny and sweet as well as sad. Performances are perfect.
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If there's a film that you haven't yet seen from last year's Oscar nominations, this is the next one for you. Heartbreaking, touching, very funny, and educational in many respects, "The Sessions" is a film that speaks about the lives of those with disabilities, and their role in the continuum of human experience. Based on the life of polio survivor and poet Mark O'Brien, the inspiration came from an article O'Brien wrote about his experiences with sex surrogate Cheryl Cohen-Greene and how it affected him for the rest of his life. An unexpectedly short and sweet kind of film, it would have been easy for director and screenwriter Ben Lewin to embellish the story to involve a deeper and more complicated relationship between the two. Instead it details how sex surrogates work through patient's dilemmas, how they remain professional throughout their tenure, and the good they can do, especially for those who suffer through severe disabilities, such as Mark O'Brien. The story remains accurate and poignant, driving home the point that we all can love, no matter how we look to the rest of society. That and it's the cutest story to feature a woman having sex for money since "Pretty Woman" though without the thigh high boots and blonde wig. John Hawkes blew me away as Mark O'Brien, a role that seems to have been tailor made for the character actor. He even went as far as shifting his internal organs with a foam pillow in order to recreate the curvature of O'Brien's spine, and became intrigued by the source material enough to read through all of O'Brien's works. The relationship between them is fairly touching, and for sure never borders on lustful, inappropriate, or misplaced within the narrative of the story. It's simply a sweet little story that doesn't surprise and doesn't nudge controversy. It was really surprising when Helen Hunt got a nomination for Best Supporting Actress since her part is a bit subdued, but thank goodness she did so this film got the proper bump it deserved.
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I thought this was ok. My husband liked it more than I did because he got to see Helen Hunt in the nude.
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Plenty of nudity, and sex. Not usually my cup of tea. BUT, this was so tastefully done, and the story was so heartwarming, touching, and relatable that it didn't bother me. Excellent performance by Helen Hunt, and a story that is very real, and relevant, to us all in surprising ways.
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