Oh my goodness is this movie boring.
It tells the story of the few years in which FDR struggled with polio and whether or not he would let the disease sideline his political career. Potential for a juicy story, right? Yet somehow, the filmmakers managed to drain this film of all dramatic conflict until nothing is left but a bunch of static scenes of people sitting in rooms talking about nothing very interesting.
Ralph Bellamy tries valiantly to give a memorable performance as FDR, and comes close. God knows he's the only thing about the film that almost makes it worth watching. Greer Garson received her seventh and final Best Actress Academy Award nomination for playing Eleanor Roosevelt, and her performance really has to be seen to be believed. She gets to wear false teeth that look like those prank ones you wear at Halloween, and she chooses to speak in an accent and tone that I can't even describe. It's like somebody doing a parody of a prim English governess. To be fair to Garson, I don't know what Eleanor Roosevelt sounded like, so maybe her imitation is brilliant. Somehow I sense that that's not the case.
The film looks dreadful. The camera never moves -- it just sits in the middle of the room and frames people in mid and long takes. And the lighting, no matter the scene, looks like the kind of bright lighting you'd find in a department store. The film goes on and on and then just ends after an anticlimactic finale.
Also nominated for Best Color Art Direction, Best Color Costume Design, and Best Sound, because the Academy enjoyed nothing more than heaping Oscar nominations on mediocre to downright terrible movies.
Grade: D.
It tells the story of the few years in which FDR struggled with polio and whether or not he would let the disease sideline his political career. Potential for a juicy story, right? Yet somehow, the filmmakers managed to drain this film of all dramatic conflict until nothing is left but a bunch of static scenes of people sitting in rooms talking about nothing very interesting.
Ralph Bellamy tries valiantly to give a memorable performance as FDR, and comes close. God knows he's the only thing about the film that almost makes it worth watching. Greer Garson received her seventh and final Best Actress Academy Award nomination for playing Eleanor Roosevelt, and her performance really has to be seen to be believed. She gets to wear false teeth that look like those prank ones you wear at Halloween, and she chooses to speak in an accent and tone that I can't even describe. It's like somebody doing a parody of a prim English governess. To be fair to Garson, I don't know what Eleanor Roosevelt sounded like, so maybe her imitation is brilliant. Somehow I sense that that's not the case.
The film looks dreadful. The camera never moves -- it just sits in the middle of the room and frames people in mid and long takes. And the lighting, no matter the scene, looks like the kind of bright lighting you'd find in a department store. The film goes on and on and then just ends after an anticlimactic finale.
Also nominated for Best Color Art Direction, Best Color Costume Design, and Best Sound, because the Academy enjoyed nothing more than heaping Oscar nominations on mediocre to downright terrible movies.
Grade: D.