Movie Review: "The Sessions"

"The Sessions": B.  Whenever I've attended a movie during the past few years, I've kept the thought in the back of my mind that, within the next day or two, I was going to write about it. The difference this time around was that, when I went to the theater to watch The Sessions with Momma Cuandito on Tuesday, the thought of writing was foremost in my mind. How do you go about reviewing a movie which is mostly about the relationship between a paralyzed thirty-eight year old man and his female sex surrogate? The mature answer would be to approach the task no differently from the way one would if the movie were, say, a western or a detective story. But, I never claimed to be that mature, notwithstanding my having qualified for Medicare several months ago. Writing this review is a tougher-than-normal challenge. 

In accordance with my long-held practice, I only read ahead of time the opening paragraphs of a couple of different reviews, just enough to get a general sense of what the movie is about and whether the critics deem it worthy. I had not planned to see this film until the Oscar nominations announced earlier this month included Helen Hunt for Best Supporting Actress. Going into the theater, my two main preliminary questions concerning sex therapy via surrogates were (i) what is it, and (ii) if it's what I think it is, how is that different from prostitution. I was confident The Sessions would provide the answers.

The time is 1988. Mark O'Brien (John Hawkes) is a writer and a poet who has been paralyzed since childhood when he contracted polio. He can move his head but does not have functionality of his extremities. He can verbally communicate quite well, and writes by banging a keyboard with a pencil-like instrument which he holds in his mouth. He is confined to an iron lung which he can't leave for more than four hours at a time, as he needs it to help him breath. He employs nursing assistants who are with him from morning to midnight. When he wants to leave his Berkley, California house from time to time, they push him down the sidewalk on a gurney. Despite these circumstances, Mark has a great sense of humor which he shares with us, the viewers, both through his narration and his dialogue with other characters.

The first nursing assistant we see is an unpleasant unattractive middle aged woman, Joan. Mark asks the local priest, long haired Father Brendan (William H. Macy, like you've never seen him before), if it would be a sin to fire Joan without cause. The two men hit it off, and when the priest gives Mark the answer he was hoping for -- "no" -- their relationship is cemented. Throughout the movie, Mark consults with, and confesses to, Father Brendan. Since Mark is confined to the gurney, these conferences take place out in the open, in front of or right behind the pews usually within earshot of a congregant or two. When the topic turns to sex -- not an infrequent occurrence -- the humor dial registers "high." Macy is terrific as his character obviously is concerned for Mark's spiritual well-being, plus, as a priest who is presumably celibate, he is curious.

The second time Mark meets with Father Brendan, the stakes are higher. After giving it a lot of thought and making some initial inquiries, Mark has decided that his life will remained unfulfilled until he has consummated lovemaking with a woman. His preferred course of action, given his physical impediments, is to use a sex surrogate. Cheryl Cohen-Greene (Helen Hunt), a pretty married mother of a teenager, happens to be in the business and is recommended by the local clinic. As a surrogate, she is hired to be the sex partner of the incapacitated patient/client, with a limit of six "meetings." Before committing to this arrangement, Mark explains the sitch with his priest pal. It sounds like this ought to be a violation of the sixth commandment, but Brendan is a deep thinker who ends up telling Mark, "I think God will give you a free pass on this one."

The bedroom scenes leave very little to the imagination, a surprise for me given the fact that Helen Hunt is an established film actress. Cheryl is a professional, but can she remain so detached that there is no impact on her personal life? The film delves into that issue, although we don't find out much about what has transpired in Cheryl's career before she took on Mark as a client. The film would have us believe that Mark is different from her other clients. I see that as a reach, although he is charmingly and self-depricatingly humorous.

The scenes in the movie which I enjoyed the most (honest!) were the ones showing Mark's relationships with the three other women who come into his life at different times. Amanda (Annika Marks) and Vera (Moon Bloodgood, of Maxim Magazine fame) are successors to the deposed Jane. They are everything Jane was not, a fact which does not go unnoticed by Mark. Hospital volunteer Susan (Robin Weigert) shows up later, and like most of the other side characters in the movie, makes a connection with Mark.

Back to my two preliminary questions. I believe the first question is answered in the fifth paragraph of this post. The answer to the second question is volunteered by Cheryl within minutes of meeting Mark for the first time. She tells him, "The difference between what I do and prostitution is that a prostitute wants your repeat business, but I don't." Really? As Peggy Lee once sang, "Is that all there is?" That seems like hair-splitting to me.