SUPERFICIAL TEAR- JERKER

BREATHE is meant, no doubt, as a sincere homage to the late disability advocate, Robin Cavendish, who died, after living with polio for 36 years, in 1994.

Commissioned by his son, Jonathan Cavendish, the story jumps from one major episode in Robin’s life to another, but with none of those episodes delving into his interior life, Breathe remains a superficial tear-jerker.

The tale begins in the late 1950s, with Andrew Garfield playing Robin as an athletic, dashing adventurer. Robin woos Diana (Claire Foy), and after they marry, they fly to Kenya.

But after Diana announces her pregnancy, tragedy strikes, as her 28-year-old husband collapses, becomes paralysed and can only breathe with the assistance of a mechanical ventilator.

Upon returning to England, Robin grows depressed, yearning for death, but Diana will have none of it. Ignoring the warnings of his doctor, Robin – with Diana’s help – leaves the hospital.

From this point forward Breathe follows Robin as he pushes for more and more

freedom, ultimately designing a line of mechanical chairs for the severely disabled.

Too much of Breathe relies on the predictable tropes of the biopic. If its subject were around to see this film, would he appreciate the tender care that his son obviously took in making it? Or might he be annoyed to have so little attention paid to what he himself was thinking? – Washington Post