THE SESSIONS
Year: 2012
Length: 95 minutes
Genre: Light Drama & comedy, disability, sex therapy
Rating: MA15+ 95' Sex scenes, sexual references and themes
Cast: Helen Hunt, John Hawkes, William H. Macy
Director: Ben Lewin
Based on the poignantly optimistic, autobiographical writings of California based journalist Mark O'Brien. The Sessions tells the story of a man confined to an iron lung who is determined, at age 38, to lose his virginity. With the help of his therapists and the guidance of his priest, he sets out to make his dream a reality.
Mark is an intellectual and a poet.. Like any normal guy he has the same sexual desires & urges, falls in love, is disappointed by love but is yet to attain the penultimate of love...having sex! Mark spends 75% of his time in an iron lung and 100% of his time horizontal. Determined to attain his 'manhood' he engages a sex therapist and surrogate named Cheryl who has 6 sessions to help Mark achieve his goal. Extremely nervous and armed with his somewhat unrealistic expectations, the sessions begin awkwardly and "not very sexy". By chance their circumstances alter and it seems to be the release valve both were waiting for. Cheryl begins to find her usual stoic emotional detachment a little stirred by Mark's candid discussion and poetry. As a matter of fact, so frightened are all the women in his life of hurting his feelings they fail to appreciate that Mark is more resilient in both heart and mind than it seems.
Reviews:
"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.
" 95% Rotten Tomatoes
"An exhiliarating gift of a movie, funny, touching and vital " Peter Travers Rolling Stone
""The Sessions" is a pleasant shock: a touching, profoundly sex-positive film that equates sex with intimacy, tenderness and emotional connection instead of performance, competition and conquest." Stephen Holden New York Times
"That exceedingly rare combination of sexy, clever and sweet, a winning tale of one charming disabled man's quest to get some stank on his hangdown." Vincent mancini FilmDrunk
"It sends viewers out of the theater with a heightened sense of the physical and a real feeling for all the things that sex means in human life." Mick La Salle
"Far Sunnier than you'd expect, an effecting, if not, heart-wrenching, study of sexual intimacy-against-the-odds which wins stellar performances and swathesc of great dialogue ****" Daniel Murphy Empire Magazine
Rating: MA15+ 95' Sex scenes, sexual references and themes
Cast: Helen Hunt, John Hawkes, William H. Macy
Director: Ben Lewin
Based on the poignantly optimistic, autobiographical writings of California based journalist Mark O'Brien. The Sessions tells the story of a man confined to an iron lung who is determined, at age 38, to lose his virginity. With the help of his therapists and the guidance of his priest, he sets out to make his dream a reality.
Mark is an intellectual and a poet.. Like any normal guy he has the same sexual desires & urges, falls in love, is disappointed by love but is yet to attain the penultimate of love...having sex! Mark spends 75% of his time in an iron lung and 100% of his time horizontal. Determined to attain his 'manhood' he engages a sex therapist and surrogate named Cheryl who has 6 sessions to help Mark achieve his goal. Extremely nervous and armed with his somewhat unrealistic expectations, the sessions begin awkwardly and "not very sexy". By chance their circumstances alter and it seems to be the release valve both were waiting for. Cheryl begins to find her usual stoic emotional detachment a little stirred by Mark's candid discussion and poetry. As a matter of fact, so frightened are all the women in his life of hurting his feelings they fail to appreciate that Mark is more resilient in both heart and mind than it seems.
Reviews:
"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.
" 95% Rotten Tomatoes
"An exhiliarating gift of a movie, funny, touching and vital " Peter Travers Rolling Stone
""The Sessions" is a pleasant shock: a touching, profoundly sex-positive film that equates sex with intimacy, tenderness and emotional connection instead of performance, competition and conquest." Stephen Holden New York Times
"That exceedingly rare combination of sexy, clever and sweet, a winning tale of one charming disabled man's quest to get some stank on his hangdown." Vincent mancini FilmDrunk
"It sends viewers out of the theater with a heightened sense of the physical and a real feeling for all the things that sex means in human life." Mick La Salle
"Far Sunnier than you'd expect, an effecting, if not, heart-wrenching, study of sexual intimacy-against-the-odds which wins stellar performances and swathesc of great dialogue ****" Daniel Murphy Empire Magazine
* Cry Baby Session
