Breathe (2017 film)

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 (who tells Diana that he will die if without the ventilator for two minutes) 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 home for 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.[3]

• 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.[3] Given only three months to live, he defies medical experts by becoming one of the longest-living polio survivors in Great Britain.[4]
• Claire Foy as Diana Cavendish, Robin's loving wife, Bloggs and David's sister and Jonathan's mother.[5][6]
• Dean-Charles Chapman as Jonathan Cavendish,[7] Robin and Diana's son and Bloggs and David's nephew.
• Tom Hollander as Bloggs and David Blacker (twin brothers of Diana Cavendish née Blacker and Jonathan's uncles)[8]
• 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.[9][10]
• 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[11] as Dr. Entwistle
• Amit Shah as Dr. Khan
• Penny Downie as Tid
• Diana Rigg as Lady Neville

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.[12]

In September 2016, Bleecker Street acquired U.S. distribution rights to the film.[13] In February 2017, STX Entertainment acquired U.K. distribution rights to the film.[14]

The film had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 11, 2017.[15][16] It was also screened at the Opening Night Gala at the BFI London Film Festival.[17] It was released in the United States on October 13, 2017,[18] and the United Kingdom on October 27, 2017.[19]

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