The year -- 1994. A fourteen year-old guy comes across a tv show called
Mad About You. No sane eighth or ninth grader would find the show funny. There was nothing about it that he could relate to since it was about adult relationships, but he still found it humorous and discovered he was experiencing one of his first crushes ever on an actress named Helen Hunt. 1996 brought along a little blockbuster movie called
Twister and Helen Hunt made a white t-shirt look so good. 1997 brought the lady an Oscar for
As Good As It Gets. But that's when things started to shift for Ms. Hunt and that now seventeen year-old's crush. As she faded from the spotlight, so did his crush status. Still, he always held a fondness for the lady despite the fact that no other person his age understood what he saw in her. They didn't understand that to him, she exuded a smartness that seemed incredibly attractive. And that the white t-shirt in
Twister certainly helped matters.
Cut to nearly two decades later and that fourteen year-old guy is now your lovable blogger himself who is certainly happy to see Helen Hunt back on the big screen again garnering a bunch of awards buzz for her role in the film
The Sessions. Needless to say, I'm happy to report that even if one didn't have a teenage crush on Ms. Hunt -- and let's be honest, I'm likely the only guy who had that fascination -- they'd still find themselves watching one of the most heartfelt and best films of 2012.
Based on a true story,
The Sessions is an incredibly simple tale laced with much more humor than I expected, full of affection and compassion towards its characters, imbuing them with a surprising amount of depth. John Hawkes finds himself in a prone position through the entire movie playing Mark O'Brien, a poet who was inflicted with polio at a very young age leaving him essentially paralyzed from the neck down and forced to be in an iron lung nearly all day. Mark, whose muscles fail to work but still manages to have feeling across his body, has managed to live his life as well as he possibly could considering his disability -- graduating high school and college and continuing to successfully write utilizing a typewriter and a stick he places in his mouth to press buttons -- but he has never experienced sexual intercourse. He's fully cognizant that despite his charming and self-deprecating personality, it would likely be very difficult for a woman to find him attractive.
After seeking the advice and blessing of his Catholic priest (William H. Macy), Mark meets Cheryl (Hunt), a sex surrogate whose chosen profession is misconstrued by the public at large. A licensed therapist with a husband and son, Cheryl explains to Mark that she is here to help him understand both his body and her body, allowing him to gain knowledge about physical intimacy. After six sessions together, they will need to go their separate ways, ideally to prohibit any connection of affection from forming between them as they perform intimate acts together.
The Sessions is certainly unique in that it's a Hollywood movie that doesn't shy away from sex, instead placing it front and center in an adult manner that doesn't stoop to raunch and is never once exploitative. Couple that with the fact that Mark's religion plays an integral role in his life and is treated with respect and tolerance and you've got a movie that should really never have been made. And maybe that's why I found it so invigorating to watch. A flick about sex and religion? And a film that brings those two together in an incredibly thoughtful and intelligent manner? Unthinkable, really. This was a ballsy movie to make (and there's no sexual pun intended there) and director and screenwriter Ben Lewin certainly took a chance and succeeded undoubtedly.
Ultimately, the biggest reasons for the film's success are John Hawkes and Helen Hunt who are fantastic. Hawkes essentially is forced to act only with his head and his voice and I can only imagine that these physical restrictions were particularly challenging for the actor. Nevertheless, there's a great amount of feeling in his eyes and a huge amount of depth to his character's heart that Hawkes amazingly brings to the table. Oddly enough, while we feel sorry for Mark's condition, Hawkes and the director never once dwell on the notion of pity which is another reason why the film feels so refreshing.
Ms. Hunt finds herself completely nude for a good chunk of the film, but to the director's credit, there's no titillation factor on display. That's not what the movie's about at all. This movie is about providing comfort to others and Hunt perfectly embodies that. There's a kindness and gentleness that emanates from Hunt's Cheryl that is absolutely lovely and gives Hunt what could possibly be her best cinematic work to date. Her role gives the film a tenderness that never becomes melodramatic.
I don't think
The Sessions is a perfect movie for it falters a bit by delving into Cheryl's home life, but not quite digging deep enough to really matter (although the home scenes do help to provide some added emotional gravitas to an absolutely beautiful moment following Cheryl and Mark's last session together). And while I recognize that minor flaw, I walked out of the film feeling invigorated and charmed by what I had seen onscreen. It's life-affirming in an odd way (and I mean that in the least Oprah Winfrey-esque way possible) and a lovely piece of work with some fantastic performances. [I realize now I never even mentioned the simple, yet thoughtful work of William H. Macy as Mark's priest/friend and the short, almost cameo, appearance by an actress named Annika Marks who starts Mark on his sexual journey.] Simply put, in case my effusive praise above isn't telling enough, I can't recommend
The Sessions highly enough...even to you folks who didn't have a crush on Helen Hunt when you were fourteen years old.
The RyMickey Rating: A
Side Note: It bothers me that when I typed in "Helen Hunt" to label this post, I realized I had never labeled anything with a "Helen Hunt" tag before. I apparently need to watch Twister again and post about it.
