Breathe

Breathe-480P

If I may give an advice to you, don't read anything about this film. Just watch it: the less you know, the more you'll be wonderfully surprised. Perhaps all you'd like to know is that it's a British top-notch production, based on a really interesting (true) story, with a flawless script and an excellent cast. A very entertaining 112 minutes. And yes: Tom Hollander is playing the Blacker twins. Both of them. And they sing together 'Goodbye-ee'. Enjoy.

The winner of the 2017 Heavy-Duty Tissues Award can now be announced. The beautifully produced British film Breathe (2017) is an inspirational bio-pic based on the short life of Robin Cavendish who was the longest survivor of polio in the pre-vaccination era. That description does little to prepare viewers for what is a multi-layered period drama, with themes about assisted dying, disability rights, medical innovation, personal triumph over adversity, and the all-conquering power of a woman's love. Amongst all of this are several good cries. Set in the 1950s, Robin Cavendish (Andrew Garfield), a dashing young tea-broker, met the love of his life Diana (Claire Foy) at a cricket game. Before long, they are courting, married, and set for an idyllic yet modest life together until Robin is struck down by the paralysis of polio. At the time, the only prognosis was a short life tied to a hospital respirator. For the active Robin death was preferable to being tethered to an artificial lung, but Diana would have none of it. Close friend and inventor Teddy Hall (Hugh Bonneville) pioneered a wheel-chair with a battery powered respirator that freed Robin from a life inside hospital, despite advice that he would not survive outside for more than two weeks. The story traces their adventurous lives together, including a trip to Africa and a disability conference in Germany. Perhaps the film's most disturbing image is a German hospital where polio victims are laid out in morgue-like boxes, kept alive only by mechanical respirators. It is impossible to imagine this film being bearable without Andrew Garfield's extraordinary performance, supported by Claire Foy in the equally demanding role of his wife. Garfield possesses one of cinema's most expressive faces which he deploys to full effect as the mostly prostrated polio patient who can only speak a short sentence at a time between breaths. From the depths of wanting to die to the joyful heights of feeling his baby son's skin against his face, Garfield communicates in a facial sign language that says more than the words of fine orators. Some viewers will fairly believe that Claire Foy is the film's real star. Where Garfield is an emotional roller coaster, Foy is a powerhouse of defiant strength who refuses to surrender to polio or to her husband's wish to die. If the film can be faulted, it may be in its polite sanitisation of what it means to depend on others for every bodily function. This story is more about unconditional love than heroism. Robin was surrounded by caring and talented friends, including the inventor of the respirator wheelchair that gave him freedom. Most importantly, he had a wife whose stubborn loyalty forced him to push on where others may have given up. Robin became a high-profile disability spokesman because fate gave him the opportunity to advocate for others. This warm-hearted story illuminates a little-known episode of history that has been consigned to the archives of medical science. Take extra tissues, but you will leave feeling inspired.

One of my favorite actors and one of my favorite actresses, together, in love, lasting love that outdistances tragedy. What could go wrong? Why am I just tired, and feeling guilty that I was not inspired. I do not know. There was just something about the entire movie that said, "look-we-are-perfectly-healthy-people-pretending-that-paralysis-is-no-big-thing-because-love." And I said, inside myself, no dice.

A game of cricket assembles a mixed bag of English elites. A sport that mirrors the social tango that the players must navigate to find their partners. High priority is given to sportsmanship and aggression can lead to total interpersonal suicide. On this day, Robin wishes to risk it by thwacking the ball over his target. Diana feels the breeze from the sphere, and suddenly her eyes become centered on the brash young man that sent the projectile her way. They fall asleep on the fast-forward button as their romance spirals into a subcontinent birth. The ambition of the pair make for an everlasting honeymoon. A pathogen demon invades Robin's spinal column and his limbs are eaten from the inside. The intruder attacks the mind and heart as well. A dark blanket descends over Robin's bed as he communicates through pitiful blinks and gurgles. Trapped in the instrument that gave him a wife and son, he wallows in self-deprivation. With her husband conceding the fight, Diana becomes a foot soldier and mobilizes a legendary assembly of peers. Ladies and gentlemen who have a knack for excavating laughter from mires, these colleagues put impossible smiles on Robin's stagnant face. The expression exuding from Robin's cheeks and brows stir an unfathomable determination in his friends. Talking them into suicidal missions, they are reluctant at first, then exuberant supporters of his cause. Living truly becomes an obsession of Robin's and those around him catch the bug as well. Quality of life standards vary tremendously dependent on where you travel. Some places limit this arbitrary concept, and others exploit it. Whether you live in excess or are trapped in institutions or class prisons, there are doors to fulfillment. Robin Cavendish was merely a spoken person for the idea of "better".

"Breathe" (2017 release from the UK; 117 min.) brings the story of Robin Cavendish. "What Follows Is True" announce the big screen as the movie opens. We get to know Robin, who gets to know Diana at a cricket game and after a whirlwind romance, they marry. We are then transported to "Kenya 1958", where after playing a tennis match, Robin collapses. He is diagnosed with polio. Paralyzed from the neck down and tried to a ventilator, Robin is given three months to live At this point we are 10 min. into the movie, but to tell you more of the plot would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out. Couple of comments: this is the directing debut of British actor Andy Serkis, best known these days for playing Caesar in the "Planet of the Apes" franchise reboot. Here Serkis brings us a biopic of Robin Cavendish, who really didn't die after just 3 months. Instead Robin and his wife Diana refuse to give up and try to give Robin a glimmer of hope and some normalcy. The man's life is truly inspirational. Alas, I wish I could say the same thing about this movie. Andrew Garfield (as Robin) and Claire Foy (as Diana) do the best they can with the material they are given. But the movie lacks overall in drama and feels done strictly-by-the-numbers. The set's production certainly can't be blamed, and the photography is quite good as well. "Breathe" feels like Oscar-bait but in the end simply doesn't deliver. "Breathe" opened this weekend at my local art-house theater here in Cincinnati. The Sunday matinée screening was attended so-so (probably the sunny 75 degree weather had something to do with that). I had high hopes for this movie. In the end I felt let down. I encourage you to check out "Breathe", be it in the theater, on Amazon Instant Video, or eventually on DVD/Blu-ray, and draw your own conclusion.

My wife and I watched this at home on DVD from our public library. Andrew Garfield is really excellent in the part of Robin Cavendish who in 1958, at the age of 28, contracted polio while in Kenya on business. I remember polio well, I was a boy in the 1950s and I remember taking the Salk vaccine. It is a devastating illness, it usually causes paralysis which is not reversible. Typically polio victims were given a few months to live and were kept hospitalized, on a ventilator, unable to breathe on their own. After about a year Robin began to ask why he couldn't be moved to his home and kept on a ventilator there. Eventually he was and with the help of a friend had devices built, with battery operated ventilators, that would allow him initially to go outdoors then to even take trips. And devices which operated by slight movements of his head. The meat of this movie is what he accomplished after he left the hospital, particularly how he helped open up development of batter ways to care for those with similar afflictions. He eventually died in 1994, about 35 years after contracting polio. It is implied though not stated in the movie that he chose his time of death by having a doctor administer a medicine so that his ventilator could be unplugged and he could died peacefully and painlessly.

I truly enjoyed this film that I saw at TIFF. Apparently a lot of critics were expecting something grittier from Andy Serkis. Jonathan and Diana Cavendish are 100% behind this film and I DO believe that what is shown is true. Perhaps some critics wanted more darkness, but I do believe with these peoples' zest for life, they didn't allow much darkness to cloud their love and triumph. I believe that Robin, Diana, and Jonathan enjoyed their time together as much as humanly possible. It is a love letter, a tale of triumph over adversity, and most of all it is a wonderful love story. Sometimes there IS more light than darkness. Especially when you have talent like Andrew Garfield and Claire Foy. Both are excellent in their roles, allowing me to completely immerse myself in this uplifting story.

Not perfect but pretty damn close to perfection . I've said it before the best films are based on real events . Andy Garfield deserves the best actor Oscar . This one will make you laugh , cry and smile . One man's fight for survival against the odds with the loving support of his wife and son who incidentally produced the film . Excellent casting , acting and directing by Serkis . Beautiful photography a film that ought to be depressing was actually somewhat uplifting and you'll want to see it again and look up the real story . A British cinematic masterpiece worthy of an Oscar nomination. Pad.A 9/10

Saw this film last night without reading any previously written reviews, and I thought it absolutely outstanding. The devotion that Robin and Diana had for each other, encountering such a life altering event only one year into a marriage would likely destroy most marriages. Addressing the ignorance and lack of empathy from the medical community must have been a real slog, and it is to their credit that such amazing inroads were made to better the lives of polio victims and other disabled persons. While the world has become a better place for those "outside the norm", there is still so much yet to be done. The cast and Jonathan Cavendish should win all the BAFTAs and Oscars possible. This film gave me hope that we can all be better than we are.