The Sunday Paper, 24 April 2005
By Kevin Forest Moreau
**Thanks, Lena

The history of cinema is filled with redemptive dramas in which a somewhat unsympathetic protagonist undergoes a personal transformation as the result of a serious medical condition. "Warm Springs," however, is surely the first film in which the main character's journey rehabilitates him to such a degree that he evolves from a callow son of privilege into one of the most beloved and influential presidents in the history of the United States, seeing the nation through the great depression and a devastating world war.

In this HBO Films production, filmed entirely in Georgia, Shakespearean movie star Kenneth Branagh plays Franklin Delano Roosevelt, pre-presidency, as a kind of cross between Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. Having just run for vice president on an unsuccessful Democratic ticket, Franklin, an assistant secretary of the Navy, exhibits a sense of entitlement particular to the idle rich. Prodded along by his ambitious political adviser Louie Howe (David Paymer), he disinterestedly maintains a public profile in hopes of launching a presidential bid of his own—when he's not indulging in an affair with his personal secretary—and just generally skating through life with little regard for the consequences of his actions.

Cue the debilitating disease: As history and the rules of drama dictate, this is when FDR is stricken with polio at the age of 39, and his once-bright future now seems doomed. His domineering mother (an imperious Jane Alexander) seems more concerned with Franklin's career opportunities than with his health; meek wife Eleanor (Cynthia Nixon, of "Sex and the City"), however, sees the disease as an opportunity to patch together the pair's imperiled union. Franklin, meanwhile, spirals into a deep, dark depression. Desperate for solitude, he eventually heads to Warm Springs, a ramshackle resort in rural Bullochville, Georgia, whose springs have yielded promising results.

Inevitably the wealthy Franklin, who initially wants nothing to do with the other patients who begin flocking to Warm Springs after reading a newspaper article about his condition, becomes appalled at the treatment they receive from the rest of society. Warm Springs, we're led to infer, fans the first embers of true leadership in his soul, as he begins to place the welfare of others above his own self-pity.

Branagh's performance as FDR is notably understated; he refuses to stoop to caricature, preferring instead to let disturbingly withered legs and a quiet, blossoming sense of indignity and compassion fill the space behind those famous spectacles and cigarette holder. He approximates Roosevelt's avuncular, blustery charisma by accentuating the flawed man underneath. The rest of the cast supports him with sturdy turns of their own, especially Nixon, whose subtly attractive features and natural intelligence draw us into Eleanor's own gradual progression into the strong-willed crusader of history.

Additionally, Paymer adds heft to his ever-optimistic and opportunistic advisor, just as Kathy Bates (as a gruff, matronly physical therapist) and Tim Blake Nelson (looking like a backwoods Stephen Baldwin as the slick manager of Warm Springs) elevate their roles above easy stereotypes, aided by a script from first-time screenwriter Margaret Nagle (see sidebar) that (mostly) avoids cheap sentimentality.

Part of "Warm Springs" was filmed at the real-life Warm Springs Institute for Rehabilitation. But its admirable historical verisimilitude is slightly undermined by the film's genial willingness, at least early on, to play into the notion of Southerners as unsophisticated rubes—the better to underline the distasteful circumstances in which Franklin finds himself.

That's a minor quibble, however, and easily forgiven. Director Joseph Sargent ("Something the Lord Made") and his (largely local) cast and crew exhibit an obvious affection for the film's subject matter. The human drama of "Warm Springs" is never overshadowed by the iconic, larger-than-life stature of its protagonist, whose personal transformation is all the more affecting as a result. (***1/2)