Warm Springs (film)

Warm Springs is a 2005 made-for-television biography drama film directed by Joseph Sargent, written by Margaret Nagle, and starring Kenneth Branagh, Cynthia Nixon, Kathy Bates, Tim Blake Nelson, Jane Alexander, and David Paymer. The screenplay concerns U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt's 1921 illness, diagnosed at the time as polio, his struggle to overcome paralysis, his discovery of the Warm Springs resort, his work to turn it into a center for the rehabilitation of polio victims, and his resumption of his political career. Roosevelt's emotional growth as he interacts with other disabled people at Warm Springs prepares him for the challenges he will face as president during the Great Depression.

Plot
The film opens in 1924 with a handicapped Franklin D. Roosevelt living in semi-isolation on a Florida houseboat with two male attendants. He reminisces about running as vice president during the 1920 presidential election. Franklin, a Harvard-educated lawyer, New York assemblyman, and assistant Secretary of the Navy, gave a rousing speech in which he mentioned his cousin President Teddy Roosevelt's own run as vice president. Republican Warren Harding won the election, but Franklin's political rise had begun, though his opponents consider the arrogant Franklin a political lightweight.

When Franklin's wife, Eleanor discovered his extra-marital affair, they remained married but with mostly separate lives. When Franklin was suddenly stricken with what was diagnosed as polio, leaving his lower body paralyzed, devastated and refusing to be a burden, Franklin then left for Florida to live on the houseboat.

When a storm wrecks the houseboat, Franklin and his attendants go to a nearby restaurant. Louis Howe, Franklin's political adviser, arrives and attempts to persuade Franklin to return to New York and resume his political career. However, at the same time Franklin receives a letter from an old friend George Foster Peabody who invites Franklin to the Meriweather Inn, the resort he owns in Warm Springs, Georgia. Peabody claims a handicapped boy was able to walk while in the therapeutic mineral waters. Intrigued, Franklin heads to Warm Springs, along with Eleanor.

Franklin and Eleanor discover the Meriweather Inn is extremely rundown. Franklin rejects staying in a two-story residence, fearing being trapped upstairs in a fire, but settles for a small one-story cottage. Once in the pool, Franklin is unable to stand, though resort manager, Tom Loyless, says he will in time. Meanwhile, Eleanor realizes Franklin intends to stay in Georgia.

Appalled by the differences between Georgia and New York and the dilapidated resort, Eleanor urges Franklin to return to New York City, saying it has the best doctors and hospitals in the country. He refuses, believing Warm Springs gives him a chance to walk again. Eleanor returns to New York where Louis launches her career as a social activist. Meanwhile, Franklin is eventually able to stand and move around in the buoyant waters. His celebrity results in an interview with the local newspaper. Franklin feels residents pity him, but Tom assures him that is not the case.

The resort closes for the season. Franklin returns in the spring to discover that after his newspaper interview was nationally syndicated, other polio victims have come to the resort. Franklin angrily storms out; Tom chastises him, saying it is not Franklin's private resort and accuses him of having the same prejudices and pity that other people have towards polio victims.

At the train station, Franklin is about to return to New York. Tom is there to pick up Fred Botts a newly arriving polio patient. Franklin is appalled that the young man was forced to ride in the baggage car alone and is barely conscious. Franklin berates the indifferent conductor, and he and Tom take the man to the resort to recover since the nearest hospital is all the way in Atlanta and the nearest doctor is also too far away. Tom informs Franklin that, due to the able-bodied guests fearing polio, he cannot use the pool during regular hours or eat in the dining room.

Soon after, physical therapist Helena Mahonny arrives to work at the resort, inspired by Franklin's interview. Helena says the waters are helping Franklin but he needs more pool time than is allowed. Franklin decides to buy the resort and turn it into a polio rehab center.

Franklin learns that Tom has terminal cancer and is returning home to die. Franklin's domineering mother, unable to understand Franklin's purpose at Warm Springs, sends Louis and Eleanor to stop him buying the spa and bring him back to New York. Upon arriving, Eleanor is supportive. She and Franklin begin fund-raising and accept a doctor's offer to evaluate the resort.

Louis believes Franklin is ready to resume his political career, aiming for Governor of New York. Meanwhile, Franklin receives the visiting doctor's unfavorable medical report in which he disputes hydrotherapy's benefits. With plans to turn the resort into a polio rehab center and regain his ability to walk possibly being derailed, Franklin becomes depressed. Helena, Louis, and Eleanor persuade him to revive his political career. They devise a method enabling Franklin to appear in public with a cane in his hand and supported by leg braces and minimal human assistance so he can be seen moving around in public without crutches and his wheelchair. The plan works and Franklin is elected Governor of New York.

The epilogue reveals that Franklin won the U.S. presidency four years later and became the only person elected to more than two terms, serving until his death while in office, at his Warm Springs cottage in 1945. The rehab center was Franklin's life insurance beneficiary and continues to operate to this day.

Cast
Actress Jane Alexander, who plays FDR's mother Sara Delano Roosevelt, also played Eleanor Roosevelt in the acclaimed 1976 telefilm Eleanor and Franklin and its 1977 sequel Eleanor and Franklin: The White House Years. Many of the bit part actors in the film are actually physically disabled, though Branagh and several other of the principal actors are not. The withered appearance of Branagh's legs was achieved through the use of CGI.

Production
The film was produced by HBO Films and directed by Joseph Sargent. The majority of the film was made at Warm Springs, Georgia and its surrounding locations. Other Georgia locations include Madison, Atlanta,Summerville,and Gainesville.

The producers strove to make sure that many of the physical details were as authentic as possible. For example, Kenneth Branagh, as Roosevelt, is seen driving the very same specially-equipped automobile that FDR was taught to drive at Warm Springs. The cottage that Roosevelt stays in during the film is one of the cottages that the real FDR stayed in. And the swimming pool in which the patients swim in is the actual therapeutic swimming pool at Warm Springs, refurbished specifically for the film.

Reception
Tom Jicha of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel found the film "more educational than entertaining", but said "Kenneth Branagh offers an exemplary turn". Rob Owens of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette said, ""Warm Springs" isn't a revolutionary or ground-breaking film, but it is a solid depiction of a time in the life of a figure who loomed large in 20th century American history." Sid Smith of the Chicago Tribune said that Branagh and Nixon "play these familiar icons as real, flesh-and-blood people", and also noted memorable work by Paymer, Bates, and Nelson. Kevin McDonough of United Feature Syndicate called the film "intimate and powerful".

Hal Boedeker of the Orlando Sentinel takes some issue with some of the writing, but says the film is "impressive" and that " Tim Blake Nelson is heart-rending as the spa's proprietor." He also noted that before Roosevelt died at Warm Springs, he listed the rehabilitation center as beneficiary of his $562,000 life insurance policy.