Hot Springs (2005)

Directed by: Joseph Sargent | 121 minutes | drama, biography, history | Actors: Kenneth Branagh, Cynthia Nixon, David Paymer, Tim Blake Nelson, Matt O’Leary, Matt Malloy, Andy Davoli, Nelsan Ellis, Jane Alexander, Kathy Bates, Melissa Ponzio, Quint Von Canon, Mike Pniewski, Grayce Spence, Rand Hopkins , Brian F. Durkin, Carrie Adams, Georgia Miles, Devon Gearhart, Tripp Hennington, Sam Frihart, Matthew Stanton, Ron Clinton Smith, Lonnie R. Smith Jr., Jill Jane Clements, Dave Hager, Felicia Day, Meggie Geisland, E. Roger Mitchell, Deborah Duke, Bob Seel, Brian Beegle, Steve Coulter, Marianne Fraulo, Jody Thompson, Frank Hoyt Taylor, Lori Beth Edgeman, Teal Sherer, Margo Gathright-Dietrich, Laurel Lawson, Danny Nelson, Sharon Blackwood, Bart Hansard, Terry Loughlin, Marc McPherson, JL Parker, Wilbur Fitzgerald, Terrence Gibney, David Silverman, Robert C. Treveiler, Carl McIntyre, Greg Thompson, Ron Goss, John Collier, Danny Connell, Turner Dixon, Justin Warren Downing, Michael Byrd Elliott, Joey Goldman , Azel James, Seth Morris

Sympathetic biographical drama about the decade in which Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945) held no political or public position, but suffered physically and mentally as a result of his illness. The film shows the struggle of Roosevelt (Kenneth Branagh) himself, but also the budding of the social and political involvement of his husband Eleanor (Cynthia Nixon) and the development of the spa town of Warm Springs in Georgia into a rehabilitation center for polio victims.

Roosevelt’s promising career as Secretary of the Navy during World War I and as a vice presidential candidate in the 1920 election (which the Democrats lost and the Republicans seize the White House for the rest of the 1920s) came to an abrupt halt after he became infected with poliomyelitis. After the first attack, feeling and control of his arms and torso returned, but he would remain paralyzed from the hips and never be able to walk on his own again. In public appearances, he often gave the impression of using his legs by leaning his right arm on a stick, holding the person next to him (often one of his sons) tightly with his left arm and swinging his upper body forward. . A strenuous and time-consuming job, which usually caused Roosevelt to sweat excessively.

Swimming in the warm waters of Warm Springs gave Roosevelt some feeling in his legs and exercise his muscles, though his dream of one day walking again never came true. However, due to Roosevelt’s fame and an interview he gave about the beneficial effects of the water, the spa became a sort of pilgrimage site for polio patients and then slowly expanded into a rehabilitation center. This development is beautifully portrayed in the film, although the events sometimes border on sentimentality. Irish actor Kenneth Branagh puts down a convincing FDR, down to his characteristic speaking style and Cynthia Nixon (with a set of false teeth) also knows how to capture Eleanor’s facial expression and speech. The initial shaky relationship and the sometimes difficult communication between the spouses are central. The portrayed marriage between the flamboyant Franklin and the shy Eleanor went through a major crisis in those years, with his initial infidelity and superficial lifestyle deepened and enriched by his illness and her shyness transformed into an activist life in which she stands up for the weak in the society.

Historically speaking, the story is broadly correct, although certain elements can be disputed, such as the closeness of the Roosevelt’s marriage after Franklin’s illness. But the private lives of Franklin and Eleanor are mainly discussed among historians and biographers and the average viewer will not be bothered by it. The rest of the supporting roles are well done: David Paymer as Roosevelt’s loyal ally and assistant Louis Howe (known as the man who never smiled); Tim Blake Nelson as the spa manager; Jane Alexander as Roosevelt’s terrible mother and Kathy Bates as a physiotherapist. Each and every one of them strong character actors, who each occupy a key position in the plot development.

A good picture of the time is presented and it is clear that HBO has not cut corners in the financing of this TV movie. The stark portrayal of the enormous contrasts between the wealthy New York patrician who has to mentally adjust to his disability, society’s prejudices about polio and the great poverty and racial discrimination in the South on the one hand, and the Roosevelt’s burgeoning attention to other social abuses in the United States, on the other hand, are – in addition to the fantastic acting – the strong assets of ‘Warm Springs’. Incidentally, Roosevelt himself and his contemporaries have always thought that it was poliomyelitis, which he became infected with at the age of 39. In 2003, leading scientists concluded that Roosevelt probably suffered from Guillan-Barré syndrome, which produced more or less the same symptoms.