American writer Mark O’Brien (1949-1999) had a particularly rough journey through life. When he was only 6 years old he contacted polio which left him paralysed and he spent much of his life dependent on the use of an iron lung.

Even with a chronic disability such as this, O’Brien managed to live an full and creative life. He completed a Bachelor of Arts at Berkeley University, was the author of several volumes of poetry and wrote his autobiography, ‘HOW I BECAME A HUMAN BEING- A DISABLED MAN’S QUEST FOR INDEPENDENCE’.

O’Brien was the subject of American filmmaker Jessica Yu’s Academy Award winning 1996 film (in the Documentary-Short Subject category) BREATHING LESSONS- THE LIFE AND WORK OF MARK O’BRIEN. Yu’s brilliant film featured interviews with O’Brien intertwined with readings from his writings.

Now a new film about O’Brien has been released and has proved to be an audience favourite. The movie is Australian filmmaker Ben Lewin’s (both director and writer) film ‘THE SESSIONS’.

THE SESSIONS focuses on a highly intimate and personal journey that O’Brien took and which he described so eloquently in the article he wrote for the Sun magazine in 1990, entitled ‘ON SEEING A SEX SURROGATE’(http://thesunmagazine.org/issues/174/on_seeing_a_sex_surrogate).

At 38 years of age, and at the top on his Bucket List, before the term became fashionable, O’Brien determined that now was the time that he was he going to lose his virginity. With his grossly deformed body, he had never been unable to find a sexual partner. O’Brien decided that there was only one way that he could achieve his goal, and that was to pay a professional. After much procrastinating, poignantly captured in the film, O’Brien rang a sex surrogate named Cheryl and made an appointment for his first session.

Lewin has fashioned an evocative and, at times, lightly humorous movie out of such sensitive material. The performances by John Hawkes as O’Brien, William H Macey as the priest that O’Brien regularly confides in, and Helen Hunt as the sex surrogate, are exemplary.

The light in some people shines especially bright and glows long after they have left the stage. It’s not bad going to have become the subject of two such lovingly made and brilliantly crafted films!

© David Kary

1st January, 2013

Tags: Sydney Movie Reviews- THE SESSIONS, Mark O’Brien, Ben Lewin, Helen Hunt, William H Macey