94% The Sessions

All Critics (173) | Top Critics (41) | Fresh (164) | Rotten (10) | DVD (1)

Thanks to Lewin's light but assured touch, The Sessions never wears its theological preoccupations heavily, instead allowing transcendence to creep up on the audience quietly.

A very different kind of love story, breaking taboos lightly, with sensitivity and humor.

Achieves its sunny disposition by pulling punches.

A funny, tender and mostly unsentimentalized movie about physical and emotional triumph.

Forced to do all his acting with his face, Hawkes displays the kind of camera-arresting capability that has earned others Oscar nominations.

Satisfaction guaranteed? Pretty much.

It's Hawkes's portrayal, in all its wit, intelligence and childlike naivety, that really captures the heart.

By taking a sensitive, honest approach to this true story, breakthrough filmmaker Lewin both avoids sentimentality and keeps the focus on the inner lives of the central characters.

It's a brave performance from Hunt, who spends much of the film entirely naked. Both her and Hawkes are brilliant in a movie that is a massively uplifting experience.

The movie becomes a touching, often funny portrayal of sex as a form of kindness and human contact.

Hunt is a prodigy. No other actress could have brought such easeful transparency, such a glow of givingness, such heedlessness of glamour each time she strips naked.

Not only does it deal with sex in a straightforward manner, but it also deals with the equally sensitive themes of disability and religion, all of which writer/director Ben Lewin pulls off skilfully.

The Sessions can be sugary, but it's likable.

You could maybe see it working as a play, though the tactile detail of these scenes needs close-ups on the actors' faces to communicate what the transaction means to them both.

It's tender, humane and funny and superbly acted; a simple but affecting parable about experiencing life to the fullest.

Three days after viewing, the film's questioning generosity and sense of perspective will still be knocking around your head.

The Sessions finally proves that Hollywood can take physical incapacity and/or sex far more seriously than it does the potential side effects of shooting so many people on screen so often.

A touching gem of a movie largely thanks to subtly dynamic performances from Helen Hunt and John Hawkes.

Hugely enjoyable, warm-hearted and frequently laugh-out-loud funny disability drama with a superb script and a pair of terrific performances from John Hawkes and Helen Hunt.

Lewin, who has fought his own lifelong polio battle, handles tricky material with a gentle, empathetic touch.

Formulaic but uplifting, positive and accessible.

In its barest form this is a traditional rites-of-passage yarn, dealing in first love and lost innocence, and even with a candid discussion of sex, it's mostly sweetness and light.

Few movies are so frank about the sexual mechanics of the disabled ...

All thinking viewers will come away with a better understanding as to how the seemingly different amongst us are really just the one-in-the-same when getting up close and personal.

Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_sessions/

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