The Sessions

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Rotten Tomatoes® Score
91% 80%

In Theaters: October 19, 2012 (limited)

R | 1h 35m | Drama

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Mark O'Brien (John Hawkes) has spent the majority of his life in an iron lung after being diagnosed with polio. Not willing to let this hold him back in life, he learns to use a stick he holds with his mouth to follow through with his passion for writing.

He is constantly looked after by a rotating schedule of attendants, but when one attendant rubs him the wrong way, he asks his priest (William H. Macy) if it is a sin to fire her. With the priest's blessing, he seeks the care of another and he falls in love with her gentle heart and kind smile.

He wants to marry her, but she's unwilling. Unhappy, Mark returns to the priest before embarking on a new mission—losing his virginity. In his weekly sessions with a sexual surrogate (Helen Hunt), Mark learns about her body as well as his own, and step by step achieves his sexual goals on his way to manhood.