Um Homem Determinado

In this splendid new HBO film about Franklin Delano Roosevelt, his wife Eleanor says to him, "You have done a brilliant thing here, a magnificent thing." She's speaking of his work at Warm Springs, the polio rehabilitation center in Georgia, but the same can be said for Kenneth Branagh's charismatic portrayal of America's almost legendary president, who was elected four times and died in office in 1945. So many fine comments have been made about the film that I won't go over the same ground. It has obviously been created with love and care -- the production values are top notch, the screenplay and direction are strong. The casting could not been better -- there's not a weak performance in it, down to the smallest role. Mr. Branagh leads a superb company which includes Cynthia Nixon, David Paymer, Kathy Bates, Jane Alexander -- I add a special word for Tim Blake Nelson who gives a heartbreaking performance as the manager of Warm Springs. I can't imagine anyone who would fail to enjoy this film. Bravo, HBO!

This is a film that only Joseph Sargent could have directed. Mr. Sargent's work has been basically seen on television. This HBO film deals directly with Franklin D. Roosevelt's battle with polio. As written by Margaret Nagle, the film is rewarding in that one sees an aspect of this great man in human terms.

Mr. Roosevelt was a man that came from wealth and privilege. The Roosevelts and the Delanos were involved in politics most of their lives. When we first meet F.D.R. and his family, we find then living under the influence of his bossy mother, Sara Delano. His wife Eleanor is no fool, she soon realizes her husband is having affairs with other women. Eleanor's mother-in-law quickly takes command of things as she reminds the younger woman that some great men have mistresses outside the home, but that it shouldn't be a cause for a divorce, something that wouldn't have been Franklin's political death, at the time.

We watch in horror how Mr. Roosevelt is stricken with polio. In spite of his political savvy, Franklin is not ready to accept what has befallen him. With the reluctant aid of Eleanor, he answers an invitation to go to rural Georgia, to Warm Springs, where the owner has written him, some progress has been seen on people with suffering polio.

Warm Springs is more backward than what the Roosevelts expected. Franklin is determined to make a go of it. Helped by Tom Loyless, the man in charge of the springs, Mr. Roosevelt begins to see some progress. At the same time, he and other polio sufferers, are the target of some disdain and bigotry by people that have used Warm Springs for other afflictions. The arrival of a physical therapist, Helena Mahoney, works wonders for Franklin and the patients staying in the spa. Mr. Roosevelt ends up buying the place and turns it into a treatment center for people with polio.

We also watch how Eleanor, guided by the Roosevelt's loyal friend, Louis Howe, gets her involved in the political arena. She champions the cause for women to get into social issues, something she would pursue until the end of her days. Mrs. Roosevelt rises to the occasion when Franklin is taught how to walk and in an emotional finale, we see him appearing before a Democratic convention. Ironically, he would be elected on the next election and win three other terms as president of the country, in spite of his physical condition, that took a back seat to the reality of running the country.

If anyone seems to have been born to play Franklin Roosevelt, it is Kenneth Branagh. This actor bears an uncanny resemblance with the younger Roosevelt. Mr. Branagh makes an excellent characterization of the iconic man that still cast a strong shadow with the legacy he left behind. As Eleanor, Cynthia Nixon, is equally Mr. Branagh's match. With a prosthesis to change the look of her teeth, Ms. Nixon is extremely appealing as Mrs. Roosevelt.

The supporting players do amazing performances. Tim Blake Nelson who plays the kind Tom Loyless is a joy to watch, as in everything this actor does. David Paymer is the loyal friend Louis Howe. Kathy Bates is Ms. Mahoney, the therapist that is instrumental in teaching F.D.R. how to walk. Jane Alexander is also good as Sara Delano, a woman with an iron will.

"Warm Springs" takes us into the life of the man who battled infirmity with an amazing courage. Joseph Sargent is to be commended for his direction and the way he got good acting all around from his distinguished cast.

This is a very good film on the evolution of FDR from having a rather detached philosophy of noblesse oblige to having the cause of the downtrodden brought up close and personal when he becomes crippled from polio at the age of 39.

The acting and production values are superb, but the film tries to paint over a few things in order to make FDR's evolution look more perfect than it was. The truth is FDR and his wife Eleanor never truly reconciled after his illness as is shown in the film. It did not bring them close together. The only reason they did not divorce was the insistence of Roosevelt's mother, and then as FDR got more involved in politics, appearance was involved in them staying together. FDR and Lucy Mercer, the woman he wanted to divorce Eleanor for, carried on a relationship of sorts from 1915 until Roosevelt died in 1945. Lucy Mercer was with him when he died at Warm Springs. I say this not as a character assassination of a truly great leader long dead, but to point out that a person can be far less than perfect personally and still be that truly great leader. This film's makers seem to think the viewer is not smart enough to deal with that.

There is one bit more of oversimplification that made me roll my eyes. After FDR gets involved in the running of Warm Springs, some patients from the Northeast arrive. One of them, with an obvious New York accent, shakes the hands of one of the black caretakers. The black caretaker looks shocked to be treated as an equal by a white man. The insinuation here is that racial prejudice did not exist in the Northeastern U.S. which is poppycock. Some of the most racially prejudiced people you'll meet are from the Northern U.S. See some episodes of "All in the Family" to see the awful truth.

Now in only two paragraphs I can tell you everything I don't like about this film and I just did that. If not for these two white-washings I'd give it ten stars and I still highly recommend you watch it if you get the chance. Cynthia Nixon really makes you believe she is Eleanor Roosevelt, and Kenneth Branagh is superb as FDR, a man who has to come to terms with his new limitations and yet sees how lucky he was to have at least 39 years of good health and the financial resources to deal with his own health and maybe help some other people too. There's always someone worse off than you are, and maybe you can lend them a helping hand is the inspirational message of this film to me. Highly recommended.

Having been a a patient at Warm Springs for many years during the 1930s and late 1940s, I feel qualified to critique the HBO movie, Warm Springs. The feel of the period and the scenes of the Warm Springs area were fairly realistic. The Meriwether Inn and the surrounding grounds were located on top of a hill, and not on flat ground. The pool where everyone swam was the authentic pool that FDR asked his friend Edsel Ford to build for him, after he acquired the property. I have swum in the pool many times. FDR was a man of great humor, and this is what is lacking in Kenneth Branagh's portrayal. Branagh completely missed the essence of the man, but so would any actor who attempted to portray FDR. Fred Botts was a great friend of mine, and when he arrived in Warm Springs, it was in the baggage car of the train. His brother accompanied him, and had modified a packing crate for him to rest in. He couldn't sit up for very long without experiencing great discomfort. He could stand up, or he could lie down, so he asked his brother to build him the crate so he could ride in comfort from Pittsburgh to Warm Springs. FDR's first words to him upon Fred's arrival were, "You must be the skeleton from Pennsylvania." Fred was tall and very thin. In 1916, Fred was working toward his debut with the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. Among his admirers and supporters was Enrico Caruso. When polio struck him, his singing career ended, and he returned home to Pennsylvania, where he remained a prisoner in his family home for 10 years. When he arrived at Warm Springs, he and FDR immediately became great friends, and he remained as the registrar of the hospital until his death in the 1950s. He was FDR's favorite singer, and he used his great bass voice to lead the Companions (the term for the first patients of Dr. Roosevelt) in singing at the many picnics that FDR had up on Pine Mountain. He was not the callow youth portrayed in the movie. Tom Loyless was, in fact, the co-owner of the Columbus, GA Ledger, and not a failed newspaperman as portrayed in the movie. Doctor Lovett was the first doctor at the hospital, and he did much good work among the patients. The report he supposedly wrote about FDR's condition is a fiction, as far as I know. The trip to the medical convention in Atlanta was mostly Hollywood propaganda. The pushboys were FDR's invention, and not Helena Mahoney's. FDR's appearance at the Democratic Convention in Houston happened much the way it was portrayed in the movie. Overall, the movie portrayed FDR's family situation fairly accurately. He experienced great pressure from his mother to come to Hyde Park and hide in the family home. It is to his great credit that he did not do this. A final note, it's a pity that FDR's law partner in New York, Basil O'Conner, was left out of the film. FDR persuaded O'Conner to become the Chairman of the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis. It wasn't long until the March of Dimes became the major funding effort for the National foundation, and Warm Springs was on solid financial ground. Comedian Eddie Cantor came up with the March of Dimes idea.

"Warm Springs" is a tour de force by Branagh who portrays FDR as a man of money and privilege who is struck down by polio in the early days of his political career. Unable to use his legs he begins to wallow in self pity until he visits a Georgia mineral water spa called Warm Springs where he finds honesty, compassion, kinship, and most of all himself, his wife, and a new sense of purpose. A very pretty period film with good production value, an excellent supporting cast, and sterling performances by Branagh and Nixon, "Warm Springs" would have made an enjoyable stand alone drama. The fact that it's also a biopic about FDR only serves to make it that much more interesting. Another winner for the whole family from HBO. (B+)