Mailbag Roundup: The Sessions now available on Blu-Ray

Feb 15, 2013- Permalink

Been away for a few days but came back to discover the Blu-Ray of The Sessions waiting for us to toss in the ol’ LG BP200. (As an aside, we covered the premiere of The Sessions at the Toronto International Film Festival.)

We received the Canadian Blu-Ray only version from Fox Searchlight, but there’s also a Blu-Ray plus Ultraviolet version available in the United States. If you’re new to the whole Ultraviolet thing, it’s a “buy once, play anywhere” system that you can read about here.

The Sessions tells the story of a man in an iron lung (John Hawkes) who wishes to lose his virginity. After consulting with his priest (William H. Macy) he hires a professional sex surrogate (Helen Hunt) to help him take this step n his life. Written and direced by Ben Lewin, and based on a story by and about Mark O’Brien, The Sessions debuted at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, where it won both the Audience Award and a Special Jury Prize for Ensemble Acting.

The Sessions has had a great critical response and the awards season has been kind to it as well. Hawkes and Hunt were both nominated for the Golden Globes, the SAG Awards and the Independednt Spirit Awards. Hunt was also nominated for an Academy Award.

The Blu-Ray is at 1080p resolution and is released in a 1.84:1 aspect ratio. Shot on a Red One camera system, the transfer to Blu-Ray is understandably flawless. This isn’t a Transformers flick, so you’re not going to notice the dazzling surround effects that 5.1 brings you but still, the audio is good and the dialogue levels — important in such a dialogue-heavy film — are clear. The film does have an English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track, as well as French and Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1. There are English, French and Spanish subtitles and the English subtitles are SDH (Subtitles for the Deaf and Hearing Impaired) which means they add effect notes like “(dog barks)” to the subtitles.

Extras on the Blu-Ray include deleted scenes, director Ben Lewin discussing how he came upon the story, John Hawkes and Helen Hunt talking about their roles, as well as cast interviews as well as a piece called “The Women Who Loved Mark O’Brien.”

With a moving story and great performances, The Sessions is a great addition to your movie library.