Mark O’Brien, also the subject of Jessica Yu’s Oscar-nominated short documentary Breathing Lessons, was a journalist and poet who, after a childhood bout of polio, was rendered immobile from the neck down and lived most of his life in an iron lung. That didn’t keep him from studying English literature at the University of California at Berkeley. It didn’t keep him from working as a writer. And it didn’t keep him from, at the age of 38, going about losing his virginity.
This is where writer-director Ben Lewin’s The Sessions picks up, with Mark (portrayed by John Hawkes) yearning for an intimate connection with someone other than his beastly in-home helper. He seeks advice from a therapist and a priest, Father Brendan (William H. Macy), who, following the spirit rather than the letter of religious law, encourages him to employ the services of a sex surrogate.
When he’s not lying in his iron lung, Mark gets around on a gurney, so his confessions with Father Brendan must take place right in the sanctuary. Talk about awkward, but the most intimate aspects of Mark’s life have always been an open book, so he doesn’t seem bothered by it. What is bothersome are the confessions themselves: It’s unclear initially whether it’s one conversation or many and whether they’re even necessary structurally except to convey Mark’s devout Catholic faith.
Lending more insight more organically are the case notes of Cheryl (Helen Hunt), the woman Mark hires to teach him how to make love. Married to an out-of-work philosopher (is there any other kind?), she’s a wife and mother who just happens to have sex with strangers. She’s not a prostitute. For one thing, she isn’t seeking his return business—their work together is limited to no more than six sessions—and her job is to prepare him for a future partner.
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