Breathe

Andy Serkis doffs the mo-cap suit to direct Breathe, an old-fashioned period biopic about the British disability advocate and longtime “responaut” Robin Cavendish (Andrew Garfield). While his devoted wife Diana was pregnant with their child, Robin became paralyzed from polio and was only kept alive through a mechanical respirator. Although initially suicidal, Robin eventually left the hospital, defying medical precedent by living a comparatively comfortable existence at home with his wife and son. With the assistance of Diana and his friend Teddy Hall, an Oxford professor who helped develop a wheelchair with a built-in respirator, Robin traveled the world and became an advocate for the severely disabled. As lovingly produced by Robin and Diana’s son Jonathan, Breathe doesn’t offer much more than auburn-tinged hero worship (Robin always seems to be wheeling into a standing ovation). Devoid of fully realized characters, Breathe feels like an awards campaign in search of a film. D.B.