The story isn't as provocative as it tries to be, and the contrived romance is just as frustrating to watch unfold.

| Original Score: C- | Sep 7, 2017

The Sessions could easily have slipped into schmaltz, but it's an unexpectedly funny delight, thanks in part to sterling work from Helen Hunt and John Hawkes.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 1, 2017

Satisfaction guaranteed? Pretty much.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 18, 2013

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.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 17, 2013

The Sessions can be sugary, but it's likable.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 17, 2013

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.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 17, 2013

Three days after viewing, the film's questioning generosity and sense of perspective will still be knocking around your head.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 17, 2013

Lewin, who has fought his own lifelong polio battle, handles tricky material with a gentle, empathetic touch.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 15, 2013

Formulaic but uplifting, positive and accessible.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 14, 2013

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.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jan 8, 2013

A very different kind of love story, breaking taboos lightly, with sensitivity and humor.

| Jan 4, 2013

Achieves its sunny disposition by pulling punches.

| Original Score: 5.8/10 | Nov 23, 2012

Were you to come to The Sessions expecting a disease-of-the-week heartstring-puller, you'd be completely out of luck -- fortunately.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Nov 9, 2012

A funny, tender and mostly unsentimentalized movie about physical and emotional triumph.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 8, 2012

Importantly, the film doesn't take itself too seriously, and there's a pleasantly off-beat sense of humour behind the agony and the ecstasy of this beautiful movie.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Nov 8, 2012

An absolute delight.

| Original Score: B+ | Nov 2, 2012

It's really a three-character comedy/drama, with the best elements of both genres.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Nov 1, 2012

Using only his tilted head, his eyes, nose, and mouth and that quizzical voice, Hawkes brings O'Brien to life.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Nov 1, 2012

With its assertive hero and inclusive humor, "The Sessions" is an inspirational drama you can feel good about in the morning.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 1, 2012

It's funny and well-meaning, with great performances, but the story plays out more like an Afterschool Special with full-frontal nudity.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Nov 1, 2012