The Sessions Reviews
The Patriot Ledger
What stirs you most is the effortless way Hawkes is able to convey Mark's compassion for people far more fortunate than himself.
Full Review
| Original Score: A
Cinema Sight
Strong central performances and an endearing premise smooth over some of the more jagged edges of the script.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
We Got This Covered
Ben Lewin's The Sessions is an emotionally charged film with a smart sense of humor that'll have you tearing up from equal doses of laughter and drama.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
Flix Capacitor
While the sex sessions are frank, candid and populated by a constantly-naked Helen Hunt, it's far more warm and feelgood than you might be expecting.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
Cinema em Cena
...é motivo de alegria perceber como um homem como Mark O'Brien conseguiu explorar a própria sexualidade mesmo enfrentando a mais brutal e cruel das amarras: não sua doença, mas a crença religiosa.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
Scotsman
The Sessions proves unusually candid in its matter-of-fact attitude to both sex and nudity.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
Birmingham Mail
(... ) a remarkable film about disability, incapacity and the joy of freedom in the most impossible of situations.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
Observer [UK]
This funny, moving, beautifully acted movie avoids numerous pitfalls.
This is London
Satisfaction guaranteed? Pretty much.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
Radio Times
It's Hawkes's portrayal, in all its wit, intelligence and childlike naivety, that really captures the heart.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
Contactmusic.com
By taking a sensitive, honest approach to this true story, breakthrough filmmaker Lewin both avoids sentimentality and keeps the focus on the inner lives of the central characters.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
Sun Online
It's a brave performance from Hunt, who spends much of the film entirely naked. Both her and Hawkes are brilliant in a movie that is a massively uplifting experience.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
Daily Mail [UK]
The movie becomes a touching, often funny portrayal of sex as a form of kindness and human contact.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
Financial Times
Hunt is a prodigy. No other actress could have brought such easeful transparency, such a glow of givingness, such heedlessness of glamour each time she strips naked.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
The Skinny
Not only does it deal with sex in a straightforward manner, but it also deals with the equally sensitive themes of disability and religion, all of which writer/director Ben Lewin pulls off skilfully.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
Guardian [UK]
The Sessions can be sugary, but it's likable.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
Daily Telegraph
You could maybe see it working as a play, though the tactile detail of these scenes needs close-ups on the actors' faces to communicate what the transaction means to them both.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
Daily Express
It's tender, humane and funny and superbly acted; a simple but affecting parable about experiencing life to the fullest.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
Little White Lies
Three days after viewing, the film's questioning generosity and sense of perspective will still be knocking around your head.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
