BREATHE – Review

(l -r) Hugh Bonneville stars as Teddy Hall, Claire Foy and Andrew Garfield as Diana and Robin Cavendish, Harry Marcus as their son Jonathan (age 10) and Tom Hollander as David Blacker in BREATHE, a Bleecker Street and Participant Media release.Credit: David Bloomer / Bleecker Street | Participant Media

Everyone wants to live life as they chose but in the 1950s, options were severely limited for someone paralyzed. At that time, paralysis usually meant a short life, confined to a hospital on a stationary breathing machine or in an iron lung. Being on a respirator meant not even being able to get about in a wheelchair. Robin Cavendish did not want that life, and thanks to his wife and friends, he did not have to live that way.

BREATHE tells the true story of Robin Cavendish (Andrew Garfield), who was paralyzed by polio at age 28, and his steadfast wife Diana (Claire Foy). The true story is Oscar-bait, inspirational, even amazing, and features a performance by Andrew Garfield likely to cement his position as a major star, if not earn him an Oscar nomination. The film is the directorial debut of Andy Serkis, the motion-capture actor who has been amazing us all since he appeared as Golem in the LORD OF THE RINGS series. However, the film itself is not as ground-breaking as the people it is about, but is a model of conventional British historical film making, with pretty golden light photography, lovely period details, and stiff-upper-lip characters who embody the upper class ideal of “carry on.”

British ex-army officer Robin Cavendish (Garfield) meets aristocratic Diana Blacker (Claire Foy) at a cricket match. The two are from classically British upper crust backgrounds but Cavendish is not well-off. Diana’s twin brothers, both played by Tom Hollander, try to talk her out of it, but Diana is in love, marries Robin and moves to Africa to live out a happy life as a tea broker’s wife. But as the couple awaits the birth of their first child, fate intervenes in the form of polio, which leaves 28-year-old Robin permanently paralyzed from the neck down.

BREATHE is being promoted as a romance, and it is that partly, but mostly it is a tale of indomitable spirit and the good luck of having very creative, brilliantly gifted friends. The couple is lucky in that neither Diana or their newborn son catch the disease but they are still forced to give up their beloved farm in Africa and return to England. Doctors caution Diana that Robin will only live a couple of years in the hospital on a ventilator. Robin does not even want to do that. Resourceful Diana is determined to give Robin as much of a life as possible, and along with some inventive friends, particularly engineer/inventor Teddy Hall (Hugh Bonneville), start inventing ways to do that. Their innovations leave a legacy that transforms the future for all people facing life with paralysis.

Garfield’s performance as Cavendish, a vibrant, active young man whose life plan is derailed by polio, is good enough to start Oscar nomination rumors. The film’s subject is both remarkable and inspiring subject, spotlighting a little-known story of determination and creativity that gave hope to others. The film’s lush period beauty may put it in line for an Oscar nod for art direction.

While the story of Cavendish and the heroic efforts of his wife and friends on his behalf, are inspirational and heart-warming, the film’s relentlessly plucky, what-what, upper-crust British optimism begins to wear and feel a bit forced as the film rolls on. Even when the family finds itself stranded on a remote Spanish road, with a broken breathing machine, no one seems very worried and turns it into a party. Nothing dampens the its-all-a-great-adventure spirit, which maybe accurate picture of the couple’s life view but seems a bit loony at times.

Still, it is an inspiring true story, and scenes like where doctors in a German hospital proudly shows off their state-of-the art room full of gleaming iron lungs are a striking illustration of how much Cavendish’s friends changed things for all paralyzed people. Cavendish had enormous luck in the friends that surrounded him who wanted to keep inventing new ways to improve his quality of life and mobility. We should all hope for such friends. Towards the end, the film veers to tearful, and can be a bit hard to watch.

BREATHE is an inspirational, romantic crowd-pleaser of a film about a couple who refused to accept things as they were and transformed the future for others.

RATING: 3 1/2 out of 5 stars