In 1958 in Kenya, Robin Cavendish falls ill from polio at age 28, not long after meeting and marrying his wife Diana. Paralyzed from the neck down and unable to breathe without the assistance of a respirator, he is given only three months to live. He is repatriated to Britain. Initially he is depressed, refusing to see his wife or newborn son, Jonathan, and wishing to be removed from life support. However, Diana is persistent and slowly his spirits improve. When Diana realises she can provide for his daily care and suggests they move Robin and the respirator home, Robin brightens considerably. Over the strenuous objections of the hospital's administrator Dr. Entwistle and with the help of some of the other doctors and nurses, Robin is brought home and meets his son. While Jonathan is playing with his dog, the dog knocks out the plug of the ventilator. Robin realises, but unable to move or speak, he cannot get Diana's attention, so instead makes clicking noises with his tongue. Eventually, Diana finds him unresponsive and plugs the ventilator back in. Seeing his son push a pram gives Robin the idea for a mobile chair with a built-in respirator, so he enlists the help of his friend Teddy Hall to build one. Using the chair, and with the help of Diana and her two brothers, Robin is able to travel away from homefor the first time, and with a specially constructed van, the family begins to venture out further, even flying the van on a cargo plane to Spain. Teddy makes various improvements to his design over time, and eventually Robin teams up with Dr Clement Aitken to produce more of the chairs. After observing a German hospital's prison-like confinement of their severely disabled patients, Robin then appears at a conference and appeals to doctors to treat their patients more humanely, drawing a standing ovation. Robin returns to his original hospital with more of Teddy's chairs, and the rest of the patients in the ward leave with him. Years later, Robin begins to experience severe bleeding due to his extended time on the respirator, and decides it is time to stop prolonging his life indefinitely. He discusses his decision with Dr Aitken who advises that Diana and Jonathan cannot be involved. He holds a farewell party with his many friends. Sometime later, he instructs his family to leave and return to the house at precise times. Jonathan, now in his twenties, and Diana see Aitken driving away and return to the house. Fading, Robin expresses his love for both of them, and dies, having transformed the lives of many others like him.
Cast
Andrew Garfield as Robin Cavendish, Diana's loving husband and Jonathan's father. Described as "handsome, brilliant and adventurous", he is a man with his whole life ahead of him before he is "cruelly paralysed by polio" at the age of 28. Given only three months to live, he defies medical experts by becoming one of the longest-living polio survivors in Great Britain.
Claire Foy as Diana Cavendish, Robin's loving wife, Bloggs and David's sister and Jonathan's mother.
Dean-Charles Chapman as Jonathan Cavendish, Robin and Diana's son and Bloggs and David's nephew.
Tom Hollander as Bloggs and David Blacker
Hugh Bonneville as Teddy Hall, inventor and Oxford University professor who helped Cavendish develop a wheelchair with a built-in respirator in order to free Cavendish from confinement to a bed.
Ben Lloyd-Hughes as Dr. Don McQueen
Ed Speleers as Colin Campbell
Steven O'Donnell as Harry Tennyson
Miranda Raison as Mary Dawnay
Stephen Mangan as Dr. Clement Aitken
Jonathan Hyde as Dr. Entwistle
Amit Shah as Dr. Khan
Penny Downie as Tid
Diana Rigg as Lady Neville
Production
The Cavendish's son, Jonathan Cavendish, who runs Imaginarium Productions production company with director Andy Serkis, commissioned writer William Nicholson to write the film's screenplay, and is one of the producers of the film. He stated in an interview with London Evening Standard that in producing the film, he wanted to capture the "swashbuckling band of eccentrics" he knew in his childhood.
On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 68% based on 162 reviews, with a weighted average of 6.38/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Strong performances from Breathes well-matched leads help add an edge to a biopic that takes a decidedly heartwarming approach to its real-life story." On Metacritic, the film holds a weighted average score of 51 out of 100, based on 29 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".
