Breathing Lessons

The Sessions

*** out of ****

Directed by: Ben Lewin

Starring: John Hawkes, Helen Hunt, William H. Macy, Moon Bloodgood and Robin Weigart

Running time: 95 minutes

There are actors who make small yet lasting impressions in such a breadth of major studio films that it’s a blessing to see them get a leading role that acknowledges their gravity as a screen presence. John Hawkes is now getting that recognition.

He provided adept supporting work to young trailblazers Jennifer Lawrence and Elizabeth Olsen (in Winter’s Bone and Martha Marcy May Marlene, respectively) and received an Oscar nomination for doing so. This attention likely garnered him his first major starring role, a challenging part that looks graceful and effortless under his control, in The Sessions. He’s well positioned to garner a wealth of nominations this year.

Hawkes plays Mark O’Brien, a celebrated journalist and poet with polio who died in 1999, although the film chronicles a budding chapter in his life 11 years prior. Writer/director Ben Lewin, who contracted polio as a child, focuses on O’Brien’s quest to lose his virginity at age 38.

Strapped to a stretcher and wired into an iron lung for most of the day, O’Brien’s poetry blooms from his constricted situation. Living in his own head for much of his life, he uses writing as an outlet for expression. To type his work, he bites down on a mouth stick and uses its edge to press down on the keys of his typewriter.

A wickedly wry and honest internal voice (provided through voice-over) brings levity to the film, which won this year's Dramatic Audience Award at Sundance. Levin’s script uses O’Brien’s actual work as a portal into his trapped stance.

Nevertheless, these thoughts are also morose. As O’Brien ponders as his disapproving caretaker mopes about, he refrains that he is “always in somebody’s way.” He quickly finds a sweeter helper, Vera (Moon Bloodgood).

A magazine offers O’Brien the chance to write a series of articles on sex and the disabled. A virgin at age 38, he seeks to remedy this disposition. O'Brien tells his priest, Father Brendan (William H. Macy), that he hopes to reach sexual fulfillment since he is approaching his “used-by date.” Father Brendan is uncomfortable with being a receptacle for sexual advice, which offers some potent comic relief.

O’Brien finds a sex surrogate, a therapeutic assistant that can address his impotency who while being sensitive to his personal needs. The surrogate, Cheryl Cohen-Greene (a wonderful Helen Hunt), is kind and attentive to O'Brien but wants to keep a professional distance.

When Hunt and Hawkes are in tandem, in slightly awkward and completely naked therapy sequences, The Sessions becomes a romantic comedy with feeling, one that is both poignant and deeply funny. Their scenes together, while dynamic, only compile about 15 minutes of the film, which cuts into the evolution of the story and their relationship.

Regardless, the performances are still invigorating, especially the leading man. As the candid, wide-eyed journalist, Hawkes invite sympathy through tics of charm and nervous energy. Despite his limited mobility, he envelops a full-bodied expression and grace to the role that deters one’s attention away from O'Brien's frailty to feeling. The responses of his body during the therapy sessions soon enter his poetry.

The Sessions may be the kindest film ever released to get the brunt of his humour from situations involving premature ejaculation, but that is not a detriment to its potency as a charming, remarkable acted character drama.

It is a deeply affectionate film, but had writer/director Lewin put more emphasis on realizing the love story at the centre, The Sessions could have been a more affecting one.