Review of The Sessions (2012) by Brett B — 22 Sep 2013

THE SESSIONS is the kind of film that basically lives or dies in the hands of its central performance. Luckily, the film has John Hawkes as its lead, and he is absolutely tremendous; it's a transformative and incredibly touching performance, laced with a wonderfully dry sense of humor.

Indeed, the whole film is actually quite funny, and even though it treats the subject with a degree of frankness, it also has a lightness of touch to it that is appealing. Helen Hunt is great, too, and the remainder of the cast is very solid (with Macy nicely underplaying a role that could have easily been just the goofy, hippie-esque priest), and even the smallest of the supporting characters feel interesting and memorable.

If the movie has a weakness, it would be that it is fairly slight; though it deals with some profound emotions and ideas regarding the human condition, I don't know that it has anything extraordinary to say on those issues.

A minor quibble, as the film is a very good one.