A New Kind of Miracle Worker

The "teacher-student" relationship has been a movie plot device used over and over.  You can really start way back in 1939 with "Goodbye, Mr. Chips."  Then, through the years, you can always find a film where a wise person educates somebody in need of some learning.  There is a triumphant moment where it all sinks.  Music swells.  Eyes moisten.  Noses are blown. 

Who doesn't well up when Annie Sullivan finally gets Helen Keller to understand the concept of water in "The Miracle Worker?"

Isn't it a wonderful moment when Sidney Poitier is honored by his class in "To Sir With Love?"

And aren't your heartstrings pulled when Yoda finally gets Luke Skywalker to recognize his true force in the "Star Wars" franchise?

Well, there's something like that also going in the new movie, "The Sessions." 

Sort of.   There's a whole lot of learnin' going on.  But, it's a far cry from educating the blind or teaching somebody how to use a light sabre.  Yep, it's way, way different.

And totally fascinating.  "The Sessions" just might be one of the best movies of last year.  And, coming in at an almost miraculous 90 minutes, it's also perhaps one of the most efficiently made films in years.  Director Ben Lewin, who's from Australia and hasn't done much in this country, is wonderfully economical with a story that holds your interest from the first reel to the final frame.

"The Sessions" is a true story about writer Mark O'Brien and set back in the late 80s.  The timing is important since it places Mark's birth back in the 50s when polio was still a disease that everybody feared and nobody knew anything about.  The young couple sitting behind me in the theater had a whole discussion about it.  Neither had heard of the affliction.  The girl actually thought it was made up by an overly imaginative screenwriter.  Hello?  Instead of an extra large popcorn with butter, you should have ordered some intelligence.

Mark O'Brien, portrayed with great illumination by John Hawkes, came down with polio at birth and spends his adulthood in and out of an iron lung.  He has to take regular swigs of some oxygen through a tube.  He's relatively self-sufficient with simple tasks as long as he has a pencil in his mouth, with which he uses to type and dial the telephone.  Other than that, he's trapped in a gurney that is wheeled around San Francisco by several caregivers.  With all the hills in that town, they probably had to be really careful or the poor guy would wind up floating all the way to Alcatraz.  Despite the handicap, Mark manages to have a form of existence and a successful writing career.  He even goes to church and has regular confessions with his Catholic priest.  Mark has made the most of it all.

Except he's never had sex.  And now he wants to at the age of 38.

Since Mark is pretty serious about his Catholicism, he gets some much needed advice and a blessing from his priest, played wonderfully by William H. Macy albeit with a hair style that only Howard Stern could love.  A doctor points Mark toward a sex surrogate who specializes in doing it with handicapped people.  There is such a thing?  Who knew?  Now I'm the one in the audience being educated. 

Cheryl is the sex surrogate and portrayed by Helen Hunt, who's been unfortunately missing from our screens for way too long a time.  Cheryl, no pun intended, lays out the ground rules for Mark.  There will be six sessions in which she will teach him about sex and intimacy.  It's all laid out very clinically and they will not and cannot fall in love.  She has a husband and a child. 

Of course, you can expect what happens.  And then be surprised when some things don't happen as you expect.

As I said, we haven't seen much of Helen Hunt lately.  In "The Sessions," we get to see more of her.  A lot, lot, lot, lot more of her.  For a 49 year-old actress to be that comfortable with her body, Hunt should be applauded.  She never did this stuff with Paul Reiser on "Mad About You."  But, as explicit as you think "The Sessions" will be every time Helen removes her clothes, this is really not a movie about sex.  As a matter of fact, you never really see actual intercourse.  As Mark learns, so does Cheryl whose life has its own challenges.  Ultimately, this is not a movie about getting it on.  It's all about simple human kindness.  And two people who are, in different ways, helping each other.

Ben Lewin has written and directed a crafty film that easily could have descended into mawkish soap opera and never does.  It addresses the simple things in life in very astute ways.  And it gives major props to a realistic and honest depiction of the Catholic religion.  Macy is so good and understanding as the priest that I was tempted to convert myself.  There are numerous times where "The Sessions" could easily have rolled off the tracks and Lewin, as engineer, never lets that happen.

I expected lots of titillation from "The Sessions" and got none of it.  What I did receive was a well-conceived movie that boasts  Oscar-nominated performances from Hawkes, Hunt, and Macy.  All three were deserving.  Only Helen Hunt got a nod.  Go figure.

When I got home, I actually went onto the internet and did some research on sex surrogates.  Hell, I learned something myself. 

Good teaching all around.

Dinner last night:  Hamburger and salad.