Mark (John Hawkes) has had polio since he was a boy. He’s never been with a woman “in the Biblical sense” is what he tells Father Mike (William H. Macy) who come to think about it, has never been with a woman either. And so he lives vicariously through Mark’s unusual love story of hiring a sex surrogate, Cheryl (Helen Hunt) who eases Mark through a series of sessions to finally achieve sex with a woman.
What might seem ridiculous and-over the top “is this necessary?” turns out to be a true story. Mark O’Brien actually lived and died as a journalist, who told of his experiences in a 1996 documentary entitled: Breathing Lessons: The Life and Work of Mark O’Brien because afterall, when you’re lying in an oxygen tube all day with nothing but your super witty and sharp mind, and a pen in your mouth in order to write, what else is there to do??? Well, except get us thinking an audience, about life and worth and the joys of being alive. There will be other nurse-attendants who come and go, each taking with them the realization that Mark O’Brien is more man in his crippled body, than some of the athletic men we meet in our everyday life. And what makes the story a crowd-pleaser (aside from perfect Boston accent and performance by Helen Hunt who’s completely naked) is the idea that for the first time in his life, Mark O’Brien is going to get to live outside of his head, and inside his body. Or hers.
A very hypnotic (not erotic) elegant film about the art of seduction and human touch. Four tiaras