Ben Lewin‘s The Sessions (Fox Searchlight, 10.26) “is a touching, thoughtful and comforting film about touching, needing, being open and the finding of fulfillment,” I wrote on 1.24.12. “It’s an emotionally erotic variation on the themes in My Left Foot, The Sea Inside and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly with a little dash of Who’s Life Is It Anyway?. John Hawkes will almost certainly get some awards action eight to ten months hence; ditto Helen Hunt.”
“The only thing the film (i.e., Lewin) lacks is a strong visual imagination. Any film about a paralyzed protagonist needs to somehow free itself from that immobility. It can’t just be a series of static interiors or the viewer will start to be hemmed in to some degree.”
