The Sessions
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The Sessions
2012. USA. Directed by Ben Lewin. This film is based on the writings of disabled poet and author Mark O'Brien, who spent much of his life confined and solitary due to polio and his reliance upon an iron lung. Still a virgin at age 38, Mark very much wants to experience physical intimacy with a woman. By sheer coincidence, he is asked to write an article on the subject of sex and the physically challenged, and soon meets Cheryl, a sex surrogate. When Mark and Cheryl meet to commence their sessions, the awkwardness id defused by Cheryl's clear explanation of her strategies and expectations—and the difference between a prostitute and surrogate. As Cheryl wryly puts it, a prostitute wants your return business and a surrogate does not. The Sessions handles nudity, frank sexual dialogue, and Mark's conflicted Catholic conscience (he asks for a "loophole" in the Church's stand on premarital sex) with humor, maturity, and intelligence. O'Brien died in 1999 from complications caused by polio. Print courtesy of Fox Searchlight Pictures. 95 min.