Afflicted with polio from a young age,
Berkeley scholar and poet/journalist Mark O'Brien (John Hawkes) spent
most of his life in an iron lung, which entombed him like a big metal
coffin for the barely living. As he feels the weight of his own
mortality weighing down on him, not unlike the pressurized air in the
iron lung, he yearns to finally know carnal pleasure. But finding a
willing partner has proven a challenge. Even his writterly way with
words and decent character unable to overshadow his bodily disorder.
With few alternatives, he hires sex therapist Cheryl Cohen Greene
(Helen Hunt) – an educated professional who'll make you understand
that she's no prostitute – to help Mark reconnect with his bodily
sensations and at long last put a notch on his proverbial bedpost.
And so Ben Lewin's The Sessions
takes us on Mark's mission to discover the joy of sex, or rather, as
it turns out, the joy of the journey that is love. Despite Cheryl's
insistence that the relationship between her and Mark must remain
strictly a professional one, Mark inevitably develops feelings for
his therapist. Even though she can't reciprocate, we can tell that
she wishes she could, as the sex surrogacy sessions they embark upon
together become liberating for both of them. He finds release from
the confines of his own crippled person, and she finds escape from
her not entirely satisfying home life.
