The Sessions

Lessons in Love
by Mark Dispenza

Writer-director Ben Lewin has strayed from his roots in network televison (Ally McBeal, Touched by an Angel) to bring audiences a life-affirming story on the subject of sex that mines the depths of purist love.

Originally titled The Surrogate when it debuted to appreciative audiences at Sundance earlier this year, The Sessions is based on an autobiographical article by writer-poet Mark O'Brien about his experience using the services of a sexual surrogate to have sex for the first time. This is a challenge because Mark contracted polio at an early age and has spent his entire adult life dependent on an iron lung for survival. He can only remain outside the device safely for up to three hours. Although Mark can feel sensation all over his body, he is paralyzed from the neck down.

John Hawkes

Mark is played by John Hawkes with all the authenticity we have come to expect from this Oscar-nominated actor. After he finds himself turned on by a young, sexy caregiver, he decides that it's time to overcome that limitation to a normal, fulfilled life. While on assignment to write an article about how persons with disability experience sex, he learns about a sexual surrogate named Cheryl (Helen Hunt), who works with the disabled. Mark decides to take the plunge.

Cheryl informs Mark that her approach is clinical, and to mitigate against too much emotional attachment from her clients, they will be limited to six sessions, hence the title of the film. What Cheryl doesn't see coming is that she is the only one she should be concerned about.

Mark is the type of protagonist who doesn't change much during the course of the story. He changes the people who come into contact with him. Their defenses are down because they see a vulnerable person deserving of their sympathy. They don't expect any real bond to form with this helpless man. In their minds they see themselves as doing a good deed and making the miserable deprivations of this man's life a little easier to bear. But then they find themselves drawn in by Mark's sincerity and emotionally generous nature. At that point it's all over. They are unexpectedly and permanently attached to him.

Helen Hunt

Hunt is in her best form as she portrays a woman who sees herself performing a valuable service, but in a compartmentalized way that keeps her emotions in check. She allows us to see and experience the erosion of those emotional defenses as her sessions with Mark progress.

Mark is a devout Catholic who seeks guidance and counseling from his parish priest for his life decisions and even sexual adventurism, the latter of which puts Father Brendan, played by William H. Macy, in the awkward position of advising Mark in his pursuit of premarital sex. Macy is responsible for many of the film's lighter moments and biggest laughs as he works through Mark's life challenges. Like everyone else who gets close to Mark, Father Brendan himself will be changed by the experience.

William H. Macy and John Hawkes

If you find yourself doubting the human capacity for love in these perilous times of political contention and economic uncertainty, get to your local theater as soon as possible to see this wonderful film, and replenish your capacity for faith in humanity.

Posted with Blogsy

The Ties that Bind



Martha Marcy May Marlene                                              
by Mark Dispenza

     A young woman suffers the chilling aftermath of life as a member of an abusive sociopath's communal family in Martha Marcy May Marlene.
     The film opens with a young woman's escape from a communal farm in an undisclosed backwoods location in upstate New York.  Known to her real family as Martha (Elizabeth Olsen), and to members of the commune as Marcy May, she is frantic to get away and calls her sister, Lucy (Sarah Paulson), to pick her up.  With their parents now dead, Lucy is Martha's only surviving family member.  Lucy has not heard from Martha in the two years since she ran off and disappeared without further contact.
     Happy to have her back, Lucy and her husband, Ted (Hugh Dancy), take Martha into their home.  At first they are puzzled by her weird habits and strange way of speaking, but as she becomes increasingly paranoid and violent, they fear that she is becoming a danger to herself and everyone around her.
     The scenes of Martha's acclimation to normal life with Lucy and Ted are broken up with flashbacks to Martha's life on the commune as Marcy May.  At first she is happy to find herself in a new family headed by charismatic leader, Patrick (John Hawkes), but Patrick's love comes with a price.  He demands complete obedience to a code of his making, and of course, primarily to his benefit, and he is able to rationalize and justify every act of abuse and violence he commits. Things come to a head when Martha becomes party to a terrible crime, leading to her break with Patrick and frantic early morning escape.

John Hawkes & Elizabeth Olsen

     But has Martha really escaped?  She is deteriorating psychologically and imagines (or does she?) that members of Patrick's deranged family are watching her, ready to reclaim her at any moment.
     Writer-director Sean Durkin won Best Director at Sundance for this film, an impressive feat given that it's his first feature.  There is already Oscar buzz surrounding Durkin and star, Olsen, who effectively embodies the emotional complexity and deterioration of her character in a subtle and effective performance.  John Hawkes, who excels at playing complex characters who defy easy stereotype, makes Patrick both appealing and chilling.
     This is a complex psychological thriller, with a number of ambiguous story elements left to the interpretation of the audience.  That certainly won't make it attractive to the masses of the movie-going public, but if you like this kind of mind-bending, thought-provoking story, you're going to have a great time wrapping your brain around this one.