Joy is a complicated emotion to capture on screen – particularly when your narrative deals with paralysis, imprisonment and a desire for death. Yet Andy Serkis’s directorial feature debut, about the life of pioneering polio survivor Robin Cavendish, is so full of laughter that one might easily forget its sombre subject matter. Part exuberant love story, part great escape adventure, this is an old-fashioned tale of triumph over adversity that refuses – like its protagonists – to succumb to confinement. The world is their oyster – until polio strikes and Robin is paralysed from the neck down, kept alive by a respirator. Having played polio survivor Ian Dury in Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll, Serkis brings compassion and empathy to the drama, painting Robin and his fellow “responauts” as explorers with mountains to climb.

Source: The Guardian October 29, 2017 09:00 UTC