Helen Hunt and John Hawkes (Fox Searchlight Pictures)

On its surface, a film like The Sessions should have any critic drooling over the awards possibilities. Ben Lewin’s new film is a stripped-down tale of self-discovery featuring a physically transforming role for its lead actor, a fearless performance by its lead actress, and a too-good-to-be-true-but-totally-based-on-a-true-story story.

So why the sour aftertaste?

Endearing as The Sessions is, it’s also terribly maudlin and undone by its own overbearing sense of humor, which is a real pity considering the bold performances of John Hawkes and Helen Hunt.

Hawkes is Mark O’Brien, a San Francisco-based poet and essayist whose affliction with polio left him effectively paralyzed from the neck down and spending most of his days in an iron lung. As a journalist, O’Brien had developed a professional interest in the sex lives of the physically disabled, eventually his own. At age 39, he set about correcting one of the more rotten effects of his condition: a life spent immobilized and inside an iron lung left him a nearly-40-year-old virgin.

The tall, gangly Hawkes, who picked up an Academy Award nomination for his mysterious turn in Winter’s Bone, is genuinely convincing in turning himself into the talky, nervous O’Brien, who as an adult measured just 4-feet-11-inches and weighed a scant 60 pounds. But Hawkes contorts his body well enough to portray a man who barely knew his own, let alone that of a woman.

In pursuit of what eventually became the 1990 article “On Seeking a Sex Surrogate,” O’Brien finds his way to Cheryl Cohen Green, a physical therapist with a particular skill set. As Green, Hunt carries The Sessions, and not simply by her physical performance, though it’s certainly something to marvel at.

Hawkes’ and Hunt’s scenes together are, predictably, very sexual, but seldom erotic. Much as O’Brien latches on to his teacher, the sessions are meant to be strictly clinical. Not that there isn’t room to play. The first few lessons end rather quickly, leaving time to fixate on the full nature of O’Brien’s life. Hawkes’ running monologue throughout the film—both while clothed with his personal assistants and gives and while naked with Hunt—gives this otherwise quiet film a bit of jumpiness, much of it fueled by the real-life subject’s personality.

O’Brien wasn’t just physically crippled, he came in psychologically handicapped by a deeply Catholic upbringing, which ends up both livening and bearing down The Sessions. A parish priest played William H. Macy gives O’Brien a holy pass to engage in non-marital sex, and while the conceit is funny, Macy’s constant supply of ecclesiastic zingers gets distracting quickly.

A fictitious romantic thread between Mark and Cheryl cheapens Lewin’s film even further. Though perhaps necessary for the big screen, in real life, their relationship was a platonic arrangement with very physical benefits. The real Mark O’Brien wanted and feared love, and the resulting article was far more moving than its adaptation.

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The Sessions
Directed by Ben Lewin
Screenplay by Ben Lewin, adapted from the article “On Seeking a Sex Surrogate” by Mark O’Brien
With John Hakes, Helen Hunt, William H. Macy and Moon Bloodgood
Rated R for very direct sex education
Running time: 94 minutes
Opens today at Landmark E Street Cinema and Bethesda Row Cinema