I just saw "The Sessions", which, I think I actually enjoyed more that most of the Best Picture nominees (this one only rated a "best supporting actress" for Helen Hunt). It is based on an article by Mark O'Brien, a paraplegic who, though he spent most of his life in an iron lung, managed to attend, and graduate from the University of California/Berkeley, as well a write poetry, and work as a journalist for Pacific News Service, where he wrote about having his first sexual experience with a sexual surrogate. That is the subject of this movie.

The sex scenes are what you might call "full on", though not necessarily very erotic, at least in part because of concerns about how Mark, who spends most of his life breathing with mechanical assistance, is going to survive the "breathing hard" part of sex.

The movie is a "small" movie, perhaps owing to the fact that the subject is mostly confined to an iron lung in a small apartment, but
it is humorous, engaging, and on occasion, touching. Not a "feel sorry for the cripple" movie, by any means, it is, instead, about
an intelligent and likable person(much like us) who has to live with a condition that none of us really wants to think about.

After you see this, you should check out the real Mark, in a documentary called "Breathing Lessons", which you can see at snagfilms.com. He was even more engaging that John Hawkes portrayal of him...