The Sessions - A moving experience

Wow.  The Sessions.  What can I say?  My husband says he knows when I like a movie because I cry.  Well, had he gone with me he would have known that I loved this movie as I softly let the tears flow towards the end of this unbelievable film.  I had a cold at the time, so I hoped that my friend would think I was just blowing my nose because of that, but realized that she, too, was softly crying.

John Hawkes is unbelievable as Mark O'Brien, a poet and author who had been paralyzed  from the neck down since the age of six by polio.  The film starts when Mark is 38 and trying to figure out how he can have a sexual relationship with another human being.  Helen Hunt plays the sex surrogate who meets with Mark to build his "body awareness" (he's not sure what that means).  In one scene, she kisses his chest.  He tells her that no one has ever touched him except to bathe him or perform medical procedures.  That really tore me up as I thought about all of the people who are disabled and wondered about their experiences with others looking past them, talking over them, and pitying them.  My friend, The Lass, is one of the only people I know who really SEES people with disabilities.  I admire her so much.

The movie is fantastic.  Although you will cry, you will leave the theater uplifted somehow.  This guy had such a wit, such a sense of humor, and it is not just in the film.  It was this way in his real life, from what I've been able to research since last night.  As an example, here is one of his poems.  Enjoy.

"Lifestyles of the Blind and Paralyzed" by Mark O'Brien:

The pay is lousy,
no vacations or sick leave,
and the compliments …
You’d rather do without them.

On the plus side,
you’re exempt from military service,
get to watch lots of TV
and pay half price at the movies.

They’re out there, my public,
dying to ask me what happened to you,
wondering how I pee
and using me as proof

that God is just
and punishes only the wicked.

Please read this 1999 Salon.com article about Mark that showcases his Irish spunk and the struggles that our citizens with disabilities face even today....note his fight with Social Security about keeping his $400 payments for an attendant because he lacked "appropriate records."

John Hawkes deserves an Oscar.