The Sessions

There are some roles that I can imagine are very difficult to portray for actors. Roles that require the character to be mentally or physically disabled are among them. For mentally impaired characters, you don't want to, pardon the reference to Tropic Thunder, go "full retard". If the actor does not have a mental disability, then  doing so could seem comedic to some. Playing a blind character, you have to pretty much turn your eyes off and playing a character with any other physical disability, you have to not use the limbs that are affected.

In The Sessions, John Hawkes transforms himself into a man with a severe case of polio that has deteriorated the muscles throughout his body, taking away expressions through body language.

Based on a true story, John Hawkes plays Mark O'Brien, a writer who is confined to a guerny. Mark us asked to write a column on the sex lives of people with physical disabilities. Never having experienced sex himself, Mark hires a sex therapist to whom he loses his virginity. But, being a poet, Mark finds it difficult to separate romance from the sessions with his therapist and finds himself falling in love with her.

John Hawkes gives the performance of his career thus far in this heart warming and inspiring movie about a man wanting nothing but a sense of normalcy. Although I doubt it will get much publicity this coming award season, I feel it deserves many nods for its superb acting.

Go see this movie.

My Grade: A