The Sessions
Short description
Mark O'Brien is a journalist and poet in his late thirties who has spent much of his life in an iron lung after contracting polio as a child. He decides he wants to experience sex, and after discussing the matter with a priest, he contacts a sex surrogate named Cheryl Cohen-Greene. Their sessions form the centre of the story, which follows Mark as he works toward a goal he had assumed was out of reach, and the relationship that develops between the two of them.
The film is a comedy-drama directed by Ben Lewin, who also wrote the screenplay. It was his first feature in this later stretch of his career, followed by Please Stand By and The Catcher Was a Spy in 2018 and Falling for Figaro in 2021. John Hawkes plays Mark, Helen Hunt plays Cheryl, and William H. Macy appears as Father Brendan, with Moon Bloodgood, Annika Marks and Adam Arkin among a credited cast of twenty-five. It was made for about 1 million dollars and took roughly 9 million dollars worldwide.
On IMDb the film holds an audience rating of 6.9 from 635 votes, while the critics' score stands at 7.8 from 203 reviews, a noticeably warmer response from reviewers than from general viewers.
What's left behind the scenes
- The film is based on real events, in particular on the essay "In Search of a Sex Surrogate" by journalist and poet Mark O'Brien.
- When writing the script, Lewin collaborated closely with people who had communicated with O'Brien in the last few years of his life – his friend Susan Fernbach and sex surrogate Cheryl Cohen Greene, whose role was played by Helen Hunt.
- Before casting John Hawkes in the lead role, Ben Lewin auditioned several actors, but none of them were able to embody the character with sufficient accuracy. To prepare for the role, Hawkes read every work to which O'Brien contributed, watched Jessica Yu's "Oscar-winning" documentary "Breathing Lessons: The Life and Work of Mark O'Brien," which tells about his difficult life, and considered it "the most useful tool an actor could ever hope for." The actor's character lies motionless throughout the film, so Hawkes experienced serious back problems after filming ended.
- According to Lewin, funding the film was one of the most difficult problems, as the creators initially intended it to be "independent." At the Sundance Film Festival, the film was shown under the title The Surrogate, but Fox Searchlight Pictures later demanded a change because the action film "Surrogates" had recently been released in theaters.
- At the Sundance Film Festival, the film crew, and specifically John Hawkes, received a ten-minute standing ovation.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
