The Sessions
Fox Searchlight Pictures | Release Date: October 19, 2012 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
79
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 39 Critic Reviews
Positive:
36
Mixed:
3
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottNov 16, 2012
The result is a human drama that quietly argues that the gift of life isn't one to be taken lightly. Read full review
100
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallNov 14, 2012
The Sessions is often brazenly funny, not from shocking dialogue but characters speaking and reacting the way real people do, especially with such a flustering subject as sex. Read full review
100
New York PostLou LumenickOct 19, 2012
The very sex-positive The Sessions treats intimacy with an explicitness and honesty that's very rare in movies. It may be the first film that doesn't turn premature ejaculation into a punch line. Read full review
100
ObserverRex ReedOct 16, 2012
The Sessions is fascinating, informative, engaging and heartbreaking stuff. Its easygoing, matter-of-fact tone makes it subtle and rewarding, not weird. Roses all around to all and sundry for one of the year's most captivating films. Read full review
91
Portland OregonianMarc MohanNov 1, 2012
John Hawkes has, until now, been known primarily as the skilled character actor who brought an earthy authenticity to roles on TV's "Deadwood" and the Oscar-nominated "Winter's Bone." With The Sessions, he makes his mark as a bona fide member of screen acting's elite. And he does it while barely moving a muscle. Read full review
91
The A.V. ClubNathan RabinOct 13, 2012
It might just be the most poignant, moving film ever made about one man's surprisingly noble efforts to get laid. Read full review
90
VarietyPeter DebrugeOct 13, 2012
A film of tenderness and humor married to the unlikeliest of subjects. Read full review
88
Washington PostAnn HornadayOct 26, 2012
Thanks to Lewin's light but assured touch, The Sessions never wears its theological preoccupations heavily, instead allowing transcendence to creep up on the audience quietly. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsOct 25, 2012
John Hawkes is wonderful as O'Brien, as is Helen Hunt as the surrogate whose sessions with O'Brien form the crux of the film. The results are extremely moving and, in general, low on egregiously yanked heartstrings or the usual biopic filler. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeTy BurrOct 25, 2012
The achievement of this simply told, exceptionally fine film is the clarity with which it portrays the drama of a good soul in an inert body. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertOct 24, 2012
Mark is played by John Hawkes, who has emerged in recent years as an actor of amazing versatility. What he does here is not only physically challenging, but requires timing and emotion to elevate the story into realms of deep feeling and, astonishingly, even comedy. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter TraversOct 18, 2012
Just see it. This movie will take a piece out of you. Read full review
83
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerOct 19, 2012
Although stylistically and conceptually it never lifts itself entirely out of the realm of a made-for-television drama – don't expect "My Left Foot" – The Sessions is bracing. It's also one of the few movies to recognize that people with severe physical disabilities have sexual lives, too. Read full review
83
IndieWireEric KohnOct 18, 2012
Baring all and radiating an affability that defines the movie's tone, Hunt delivers her finest performance since "As Good As It Gets." Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumOct 17, 2012
The Sessions is first and foremost about Hawkes' virtuoso performance, one of those "My Left Foot"-y transformations that make audiences verklemmt and generate awards talk. Read full review
80
SlateDana StevensOct 19, 2012
This frank, funny, tender film both asks and receives more from its sex scenes than any movie I've seen in a long time. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyOct 18, 2012
In a country that embraces cinematic violence with such ease but blushingly prefers to keep sex in the shadows or under the sheets, the grown-up approach of The Sessions is rare. Read full review
80
The New York TimesStephen HoldenOct 18, 2012
The Sessions is a pleasant shock: a touching, profoundly sex-positive film that equates sex with intimacy, tenderness and emotional connection instead of performance, competition and conquest. Read full review
80
NPRElla TaylorOct 18, 2012
For once in an American movie, the uplift feels earned. Read full review
80
Total FilmEllen E. JonesOct 17, 2012
Aided by committed, awards-ready performance, The Sessions transforms 'taboo' subject matter into a humorous, humane and uncomplicated pleasure. Read full review
80
Village VoiceMelissa AndersonOct 17, 2012
Hawkes and Hunt nobly tackle the physical demands their roles require. Read full review
80
Time OutJoshua RothkopfOct 16, 2012
The real heat of The Sessions comes from its pitch-perfect sense of place, the free-spirited Berkeley of the 1980s. Read full review
80
Boxoffice MagazineRay GreeneOct 13, 2012
The emotional journey is articulated with so much nuance, and such a vigorous belief in human possibility, that everything The Surrogate touches becomes its own, and is made new. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyOct 13, 2012
At once entirely frank and downright cuddly in the way it deals with the seldom-visited subject of the sex lives of people with disabilities, this well-acted and constructed film will, at the very least, turn the spotlight on this unusual topic. Read full review
75
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsNov 1, 2012
Few mainstream movies, let alone disability dramas, are so frank about sexual mechanics, yet notwithstanding the nudity, The Sessions isn't voyeuristic or sleazy. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliNov 1, 2012
Although the majority of the movie focuses on the interaction between Mark and Cheryl, there is a third character in the mix. Catholic priest Father Brendan, played by William H. Macy, belongs to a liberal wing of the Church found only in movies. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam LaceyOct 25, 2012
For all that The Sessions does well, it offers some telling deviations from the real story. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleOct 25, 2012
The Sessions is moving. At times, it's even erotic, which is unexpected, to say the least. It sends viewers out of the theater with a heightened sense of the physical and a real feeling for all the things that sex means in human life. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezOct 25, 2012
Hunt gives this funny, touching movie its soul, and the actors elevate the material into something more resonant and memorable than the story promises. Read full review
75
The PlaylistJames RocchiOct 20, 2012
Two things make The Sessions stand out. One is the level of acting...The other is that, while we all know sex is more than boobs and bits and butts, it also does include those things, and The Sessions does not hide behind euphemism or gentle cutaways, montages or misty light. Read full review
75
USA TodayClaudia PuigOct 18, 2012
A moving tale with wryly funny moments. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineR. Kurt OsenlundOct 17, 2012
It's the rare film to sell sex as something truly tender and life-affirming, and Helen Hunt, in particular, is lovely and poignant. Read full review
70
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzNov 6, 2012
There is a sad sweetness to the whole affair, for lack of a better term. Or maybe it's a sweet sadness. But O'Brien's outlook on life (he thinks his use-by date may be approaching), and Hawkes' portrayal of it, elevates the film beyond what's on the page, making what's on the screen a lot more satisfying.
70
SalonAndrew O'HehirOct 20, 2012
The Sessions should be taken for what it is, a sweet but minor fictional parable about the strange possibilities of love. You may find it significant, moving and even profound, but it has a limited connection to the real world and the real life of Mark O'Brien. Read full review
70
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternOct 18, 2012
The Sessions is admirable, and often enjoyable, yet self-limiting in concept. It's exactly about what it sets out to be about - no less but no more. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinOct 15, 2012
The briskness of The Sessions works against it: It lacks the fullness of the best films of its ilk, chief among them Jim Sheridan's "My Left Foot." But Lewin lets his eye wander pleasingly. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawJan 21, 2013
The Sessions can be sugary, but it's likable. Read full review
60
EmpireAngie ErrigoJan 15, 2013
Formulaic but uplifting, positive and accessible. Fairly graphic sex is handled as tastefully as one is ever likely to see in a crowdpleaser. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierOct 18, 2012
It's strange to call a film with so much nudity and simulated sex "old-fashioned," but The Sessions nicely bridges that gulf. Read full review
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