{"id":2974,"date":"2012-10-10T10:23:57","date_gmt":"2012-10-10T17:23:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev-aboutdisabilities.pantheonsite.io\/?p=2974"},"modified":"2012-10-10T10:23:57","modified_gmt":"2012-10-10T17:23:57","slug":"mark-obriens-sessions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aboutdisability.com\/?p=2974","title":{"rendered":"Mark O\u2019Brien\u2019s Sessions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Helen<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n


I\u2019m puzzled by the new disability movie, \u201cThe Sessions.\u201d The movie gives me way too many things to think about\u2014just like life. I\u2019m gratified that a movie about disability gives me so much to ponder. Simply, \u201cThe Sessions\u201d presents the day-to-day life of a disabled man and his quest to get laid for the first time. The movie is so naturalistic, unblinking, and uncritical that I was surprised, engrossed, and forgot to be critical or embarrassed. Throughout, the gaze of the camera is so ordinary. That makes it is the most unusual and surprising movie about disability or sex I have seen. Credit goes to the director and writer, Ben Lewin for an insider\u2019s view of the disability experience. The actors, Helen Hunt and John Hawkes also deserve recognition for their unsensationalized performances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ben Lewin is one of two \u201cout disabled\u201d directors in the DGA, Directors Guild of America. His goal, in addition to providing him with a living, is to demystify disability. The best disability films, \u201cComing Home,\u201d \u201cMy Left Foot,\u201d \u201cThe Men,\u201d are great but they do not have the profound insiders perspective of \u201cThe Sessions.\u201d In the movie we get to see many of the mundane details of living with a profound disability. It\u2019s an important, and thank goodness, very good movie and depiction of disability life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The true story revolves around Berkeley writer, Mark O\u2019Brien\u2019s journey to lose his virginity. The movie is based on his oft-reprinted article published in The Sun Magazine in 1990 , \u201cOn Seeing a Sex Surrogate.\u201d It is a complex story given his family upbringing, Catholicism, and just being a disabled man in the 1980s. He was also seen in the Oscar-winning documentary of his life and poetry, \u201cBreathing Lessons.\u201d But, we did not get to know him as we do now in this somewhat fictionalized account.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

O\u2019Brien was one of those polios that used his intellect and sense of humor to connect with the wider world. We\u2019ve known many of them, and most are now gone. I\u2019m not sure what it is about polios. One theory of mine is they gained confidence in who they were in the open wards and the polio camps of the 50s. They found their disabled brothers and sisters early on, and they changed the world. Whether it was Ed Roberts, Paul Longmore, Irv Zola, or even Doc Pomus, lyricist of \u201cSave the Last Dance for Me,\u201d they refused to believe it was Okay to exclude their disabled brothers and sisters, their community, from life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

O\u2019Brien\u2019s pursuit of happiness lead him to want to have conventional, heterosexual, full penetration sex with someone. That sounds like just about any young man. In this case O\u2019Brien was 38 years old, had very few muscles he could control, limited finances, disapproving parents, and his Catholic faith to complicate the story. Because he slept in an iron lung he did not even have a bed big enough for two. That he succeeded in his quest is a wonderful example of the guts disabled people must often call upon to be successful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In essence, the movie is a procedural. We are used to courtroom or detective procedurals. And, we might have even seen disability procedurals saying, \u201cLook at the pain, look at the struggle, isn\u2019t it inspiring!\u201d \u201cThe Sessions\u201d shows how mundane and often tedious the disability life can be. The triumphs are often small, yet real. In \u201cThe Sessions\u201d John Hawkes as Mark O\u2019Brien, gets up his courage to fire a personal care attendant he doesn\u2019t like. For anyone who has had to fire an employee, you know how hard it is. Employment management is not the stuff of a tear-jerking TV movie of the week. It is about a man gaining new skills and practicing them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The telling moment that telegraphed this was both a procedural and an insiders\u2019 perspective was Mark\u2019s character explaining why he needed someone to push him in his gurney when he went out. Despite many mirrors on his motorized gurney, Mark still caused too many accidents. He had to fall back on being pushed. This is the stuff of disabled people\u2019s lives\u2014our mobility, or lack thereof, our freedom, and our interdependence on others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is something about a well-made procedural. It takes us step-by-step introducing a problem and taking the steps to the solution. There is emotional tension in the journey, but not like dramas. We are always pretty sure when we watch procedurals that there is a solution\u2014otherwise it would not be made into a movie or TV show. \u201cThe Sessions\u201d takes us through Mark\u2019s problem, his virginity, all the way to having a variety of sexual experiences. Most importantly, Mark matures in his relationships with potential romantic partners and gains a long-term girlfriend. In the beginning it looks like the point of the movie is for Mark to have sex. At the end we see it is about intimacy and relationship. It demonstrates how someone considered as so unlikely to live a routine, normal life does just that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Sessions: Based on the Triumphant True Story (2012), Fox Searchlight, written and directed by Ben Lewin from the story by Mark O\u2019Brien, starring John Hawkes, Helen Hunt, and William H. Macy. Limited release October 19 and wider October 26.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m puzzled by the new disability movie, \u201cThe Sessions.\u201d The movie gives me way too many things to think about\u2014just like life. I\u2019m gratified that a movie about disability gives me so much to ponder. Simply, \u201cThe Sessions\u201d presents the day-to-day life of a disabled man and his quest to get laid for the first […]<\/p>\n

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