Warm Springs
|
List Price: Our Price: $1.78 You Save: $8.19 (82%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $1.72 (click here) Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
Movie Reviews of Warm Springs
Movie Review: Good acting by Kenneth Branagh and Cynthia Nixon(Sex and the City) as the Roosevelts.
Summary: 4 Stars
It's about when Franklin Delano Roosevelt came down with polio and how he attempted to recover by using natural hot springs water at a broken down resort in Georgia. The plot didn't try to sugar coat FDR or his wife Eleanor. They were shown to be flawed human beings who trudge through life like the rest of us, learning to cope with problems like most of us do. It made me sad to see the fear and discrimination toward polio victims. One scene was heartbreaking where a young man was in the baggage car, chair tipped over with him in it, and hasn't ate for two days! Thankfully, there are laws protecting the disabled today.
Of course, FDR never walked again but that didn't stop him from becoming one of the greatest presidents of the USA.
Movie Review: Warm Springs
Summary: 4 Stars
If you happen to see this in a DVD store or your TV listings, I recommend watching it. Kenneth Branagh is, of course, an excellent actor. In this film, he portrays Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the years between the onset of polio and his return to politics. I've never heard this part of his bio before, and it's quite interesting.
The plot must be somewhat simplistic, since it compresses much into 100 minutes, but that doesn't make it a bad plot or a bad movie. Knowing what little I do of FDR's later history gives depth and meaning to this formative part of his life.
Again, I recommend this one. Not five-star material, but damn worth watching.
Movie Review: warm springs
Summary: 4 Stars
i watched only part of warm springs, and was amazed at the protrayal and insight into FDR's gradual acceptance of his disability. especially so in the depiction of his dreams of normalcy. i'm crippled too(although not as much as he)and i thought i was the only one who dreamed of walking with a bounce in my step again, or running alongside my daughter. i thought it was my typical denial again. the writers and kenneth banaugh however deoicted the feelings of despair and some hope so accurately that i don't feel so alone or strange anymore.
Movie Review: Moving drama
Summary: 4 Stars
Kenneth Branagh shines in this biopic telling how he began his recupperation and the events that would launch him into the Oval Office. The reason why I knock a star off is that I feel this to be the first act in a grander story that should have been told with it. FDR is a true American hero and this film rectifies any previous glossing over of his time at Warm Springs.Movie Review: Credible Portrayal
Summary: 3 Stars
This production was excellent from the standpoint of exploring the little known period of rehabilitation of FDR from the affliction of polio. Branagh is (as ever) spell-binding in his portrayal of FDR. The roles for Eleanor and FDR's mother, Sara, were either not well written or not well directed (I'm not sure which). The story seemed to play a bit footloose with a few facts of which I am aware. These being:
1.Ms Mercer's affair with the former president is portrayed as being a 'passing' dalience when in truth it lasted clear until his death with Ms Mercer at his side. So it was a significant factor in FDR and Eleanor's marital relationship.
2. Eleanor learned of the affair when unpacking FDR's suitcase and came across several letters from Ms Mercer. At that time, Eleanor demanded that FDR either end the affair or leave, which is a more contentious interaction than what the HBO presentation provides. The script has self-sacrificing Eleanor offering FDR his freedom.
3. The domineering aspect of FDR's mother, Sara, is alluded to, but not substantially portrayed. Again, going back to the affair, Sara threatened her son with disinheritance if he did not end the affair, while the presentation showed her to be disapproving, but not seemingly too distressed by the interaction.
I realize that the movie was focusing on the convalescence, however, in glossing over these familial interactions and their subsequent wounds and scars, it does a disservice to the marital relationship. At times, the film gets a bit of a 'Little House on the Prairie' feel to it. The script was obviously written as a centerpiece for Branagh, but the women's roles come off as way too flat and uninteresting. I think that more could have been done.