The Sessions

Sex and loosing one’s virginity are not always treated seriously in the movies, and not at all, if the person loosing his virginity is a 38 year old man paralysed from the neck down, a condition coursed by contracting childhood polio when aged six. The Sessions (2012) is based on a magazine article called ‘On Seeing a Sex Surrogate’ written by the subject of the film Mark O’Brien and interviews with Cheryl Cohen-Greene the sex surrogate in question. O’Brien is dependant on an iron lung that he can only leave for 3 to 4 hours per day.  Set in Berkeley California in 1988 it relates a story of a strong and determined but restricted man who has been a University graduate, writes poetry and works as a journalist. His biggest regret is that has never had sex or a sexual relationship although his sexual organ functions very well and can react embarrassingly when being washed by his assistant/carer. When commissioned to write an article about seeking a sex surrogate he realises there are such people and through his sex therapist engages a dedicated professional to educate him in the delights of intercourse. But not before checking with his unconventional priest Father Brendan that he will not be condemned to purgatory for sex before marriage!

Mark's use of a sex surrogate seems to be working out.....

This is a tremendously honest and brave film that deals with a subject that would generally be treated as a taboo subject for the cinema. Honest because although its an amusing film at times it does treat the sexual urges of a severely disabled man in an adult fashion. Brave in the way the actors have responded to polio victim Ben Lewin’s direction and screenplay, especially the 49-year-old Helen Hunt who plays Cheryl Cohen-Greene a happily married woman who because of her profession has to appear naked a lot of the time.  O’Brien is played by award winning actor John Hawkes who is forced to act from the neck upwards with facial expressions and dialogue only, which he does with fortitude. Father Brendan, in the form of William H Macy, is the sort of priest that makes church a place you would want to visit.

.......but will it condemn him to purgatory? 

This is a strangely beautiful and up lifting film that can be a little disturbing and uncomfortable when first approached but this feeling is soon forgotten. Although you realise that Mark O’Brien’s prognosis is obviously not good, his outlook on life would put most of us to shame. A charming, independent film, with an unusual storyline that disserves a far bigger audience than it got at the RBC Film Theatre this week. 

Lincoln

The American Civil War (1861 – 1865) has been the subject of many feature films over the years from Birth of a Nation (1915) to Cold Mountain (2003) via epic movies like Gone with the Wind (1939), Gettysburg (1993), Ride with the Devil (1999) and many more. This week’s Robert Burns Centre Film Theatre Film Club, again hosted by Mr Stephan Pickering standing in for his wife Pat who unfortunately was suffering from a bout of the flu, was screening Lincoln (2012) an absorbing, performance driven film that invites you to witness the last four months of Abraham Lincoln’s life right up to his assassination on the 14^th April 1865 by the American stage actor and Confederate sympathiser John Wilkes Booth at the Ford Theatre Washington DC while watching a play accompanied by his wife Mary Todd Lincoln. We see very little of the actual war, the movie focuses on the presidents efforts to have the Thirteenth Amendment to the United Constitution passed by the United States House of Representatives, and the underhanded skulduggery that went on from the President down in a attempts to get this unpopular amendment passed. The text of the 13th amendment read:

Section 1: Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Section 2: Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

The President and his First Lady Spielberg style.

The movie is directed by Steven Spielberg, his best film since Munich in 2005 and includes a cast of over 100 speaking parts. These actors are really on top of their craft, including Daniel Day Lewis, who won a clutch of Best Actor Awards for his uniquely masterful portrayal of Lincoln, Sally Field outstanding as the First Lady, Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Robert Todd Lincoln, David Strathairn, as Secretary of State Seward, Tommy Lee Jones superb as Thaddeus Stevens and John Hawkes as Colonel Robert Latham.  The key source of the screenplay is the biography called Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin.

The real thing!

My only criticism is in its typical American ending, which yet again tends to add a coating of sickly syrup where its not needed. It should have finished with the President leaving the White House; we all know what happens next so there was no need to extend it to include flickering candles! That apart the movie is a fascinating political drama that I could not recommend more and I’m sure that supplementary viewing’s would only increase the enjoyment.

Martha Marcy May Marlene.

Completely out of the blue Lucy (Sarah Paulson) gets a telephone call from her sister Martha (Elizabeth Olsen) sounding very stressed, she has not seen or heard her from for over two years!! Collecting her estranged sibling at an isolated bus stop in upstate New York Lucy she takes her back to a luxurious lakeside holiday home in Connecticut where she is on vacation with her British born husband Ted (Hugh Dancy). Regrettably the longer Martha stays with her bourgeois sister the more suspect her behaviour becomes and the deeper her paranoia. The reason for Martha’s disappearance and her subsequent bizarre behaviour is unclear but gradually it’s revealed through a series of flashbacks. I don’t wish to give to much as it will spoil your enjoyment of the film but I can reveal that the obviously troubled Martha has been living on a social commune tucked up in the Catskill Mountains under the tutorage of the collective’s charismatic leader Patrick (John Hawkes).

Elizabeth Olsen and John Hawkes.

It’s hard to believe that Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011) is Mary-Kate and her twin Ashley Olsen’s younger sister Elizabeth’s debut film, as her performance is so astonishingly good, garnering much praise from some very hard-nosed critics! Equally compelling is John Hawkes creepy portrayal of Patrick who you will remember was nominated for Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in Winters Bone (2010). Directed and written by Sean Durkin this independent movie is a rather deep and serious psychological drama that poses more questions than it answers, but none the worse for it.  Disturbing, haunting and well worth seeing.

Winters Bone

 I found the subject matter of Monday nights RBC Film Club so very interesting. It showed a way of life completely alien to our own and one which I hope none of us will have to endure, although the way things are going?

Winters Bone (2009) is the second film to be adapted from the ‘country noir’ novel’s written by Daniel Woodrell, the first being Ride with the Devil (1999) a civil war drama adapted from his 1987 novel Woe to Live On by director Ang Lee. Both films are set on the Ozark Mountain region of the central United States, a landscape the author knew from his childhood. The area covers much of the southern half of Missouri and an extensive portion of north-western and north central Arkansas. It also extends westward into north-eastern Oklahoma and into extreme south-eastern Kansas. Much of the Ozark population is of German, English and Scots-Irish decent and has lived in the area since the 19th century.

After securing the rights to the novel writer and director Debra Granik has made one of the best films of this year. It manages to show in precise detail how the people that make up the Ozark society live out their bleak, almost destitute, existence. Their main income comes from the cooking crystal meth and crack and the film shows us burnt out crack houses along with the effects of addiction. It also shows the poverty stricken wooden houses with their accompanying grave yard of old rusty trucks. Also illustrating how the social structure of this stark and neglected community is rigidly enforced.

The main thrust of the story involves 17 year-old Ree Dolly, with her mentally ill mother and absent father, she is left to raise her young brother and sister. As if her impoverished life isn’t bad enough the local sheriff informs her that her father Jessop, a well known crystal-meth manufacturer, is only one week away from breaking his bail conditions and if he does not turn up in court the family will loose their home. If this happens Ree’s mother will end up in a mental institution and the two young children will be forced to stay with relatives. Ree must find her father, desperate she turns to Jessop’s brother Teardrop for help.

Home from home for Ree Dolly

Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at this year Sundance Film Festival this compelling movie reinforces the view that the USA can make a good movie without loud music telling you when and where you should laugh or cry and without the need for special effects. Yes there is no denying that the subject is bleak but I’m afraid life is not always the fairy tale we imagine it to be. Granik makes a very credible and honest job of this movie as does the brilliant cast. Special mention must be made of Jennifer Lawrence who plays Ree and the very convincing John Hawkes as Uncle Teardrop. As I have previously said it’s both interesting and involving but does demand your full attention. Those of you that appreciate good cinema should endeavour to see this movie. DVD to be released on 31st January 2011.