Based on the incredible true love story of Robin and Diana Cavendish who defied all of the odds to live after he was paralysed due to Polio. How his wife fight for him to have a life outside of the hospital he has been stuck in, truly inspiring.
The thing that was so inspiring and incredible about this film is how much of an impact Robin has had on pretty much the whole world really. The invention of the wheelchair with the respirator from his idea and his friend Teddy's mechanical ability was something else. The scene in Germany is tough viewing and pretty shocking to be honest, but that is what severely disabled people were up against.
We get to see Robin grow throughout and realise himself that he does in fact still have a chance to live, when he is first put into hospital he wanted to die. But Diana wanted him to watch their son Jonathan grow up and for the son to know his father. I think it also helped to highlight just how strong loving someone can be, Diana was never going to leave her husband she was always going to protect and care for him. Even when Robin attempted to push her away, she would not let that happen. I seriously find that so inspiring and quite frankly lovely, something that you just don't feel people would do to this day.
I think this story just shows that you should never give up and anything is possible if you fight and the people around you fight. The love from your family and friends really can be something extra special in such a horrendous situation. I think that's important to realise just how much laughter they all still had, it was a happy and fun-filled life for them all. His friends did not want to let him go, as they could not cope without him around. Then taking into a bigger picture of how he can then inspire other people with disabilities and raising awareness that you can be more than just confide to bed in a hospital.
Performances were outstanding from Andrew Garfield and Claire Foy. I also feel the need to mention how good it was the way they aged the characters over the years, it certainly made a huge impact on the story. Garfield really has had a tremendous year of cinema releases but this is his standout performance for me, having to just use his facial expressions for about 85% of the film is something else. Foy was very strong as well complimenting Garfield a lot and they created an incredible love story, a real love that could not easily be broken. The rest of the cast certainly added some very good and funny moments to the story.
This is easily the most powerful film I have seen in a long time and it makes me very happy that it is a British film, surely it has to be an early front-runner for the BAFTAs? I would certainly hope so. Fantastic that Jonathan produced the film and eventually managed to get this incredible story out into the world. I actually caught an interview on TV last week with Diana and Jonathan and it just made me want to watch the film even more. It was also great to see this as Andy Serkis directing debut!
