Daily Dialogue — November 17, 2013

CHERYL: Picture yourself as a six year old boy at the beach. Can you do that?
MARK: Yes, very easily.

EXT. BEACH. DAY

The scene has a hazy, dreamlike reality. We see the six-year old Mark, able-bodied and full of energy, running and playing in the sand with his dog.

INT. MOTEL ROOM. DAY

CHERYL: Describe some of your feelings.
MARK: I feel very exhilarated, running next to the Atlantic Ocean, feeling the wind and the wet sand between my toes.
CHERYL: Do you really feel like him?
MARK: Yes, I really feel like him.
CHERYL: But can you really picture him?
MARK: I don’t understand what you mean. I said I can feel like him. Of course I can picture him.
CHERYL: From the outside, I mean, as an adult, as you are now, looking at him with his crew cut and his
little face?
MARK: Yes.
CHERYL: And are you mad at him? Do you blame him for getting polio? Was it his fault?

Cheryl gets up and goes to the bathroom. Mark is obviously affected by her question.

— The Sessions (2012), written for the screen by Ben Lewin, article by Mark O’Brien

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week is therapy, suggested by Despina. Today’s suggestion by blknwite.

Trivia: Actor John Hawkes had to use a cushion under one side of his back in order for him to have the look of an arched and distorted spine.

Dialogue On Dialogue: This is such a great question Cheryl asks, winding her way through his memories to remind Mark of the joy he once experienced as a boy… to contrast with the anger she knows Mark feels about his condition, and that his anger is unfairly focused on that time, that age… that boy.