Access All Areas review – brave family’s quest to change attitudes to disability | Film

The intentions behind this documentary about disabled rights activist Simon Sansome and his wife, Kate, are noble, but the tacky, cliché-ridden execution doesn’t live up to them. Essentially, the film is built around one long interview with the Sansomes on how, not long after their wedding, Simon suddenly found himself paralysed from the waist down (“Little did we know it was going to be our final dance together,” he says). The combination of a clumsy chiropractor, a rare condition and misdiagnosis turned him into a wheelchair user.

The change in circumstances would lead to Simon losing his job as a Liberal Democrat councillor in his Leicestershire district and much anguish for the couple. Eventually, he discovered a way to make a difference by starting a campaign to improve access for disabled people and change attitudes. When Facebook wouldn’t let him share a tasteful image of a nude woman with a partially amputated leg, he kicked up a fuss and taped one of their representatives on the phone explaining that, at the time, the social media company censored images that some people might find disturbing. This surely must have caused a terrible headache for former Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg, now chief shill for Facebook, but the publicity did wonders for Simon’s Ability Access group, which forced the social media giant to apologise.

All rousing stuff, and the Sansomes come across as a nice couple facing a challenging situation with bravery and fortitude. But director Charlotte Fantelli really lays on the sentimentality thick, with a syrupy score and embarrassingly bad reconstructions featuring actors playing Simon and Kate (Olly Bassi and Sarah Jane Honeywell) at key points in their “journey”. It’s especially distracting that the actors look like idealised, glossier versions of the subjects they are impersonating, a discrepancy that we’re constantly reminded of because the film keeps cutting back to the actual people.

The intentions behind this documentary about disabled rights activist Simon Sansome and his wife, Kate, are noble, but the tacky, cliché-ridden execution doesn’t live up to them. Essentially, the film is built around one long interview with the Sansomes on how, not long after their wedding, Simon suddenly found himself paralysed from the waist down (“Little did we know it was going to be our final dance together,” he says). The combination of a clumsy chiropractor, a rare condition and misdiagnosis turned him into a wheelchair user.

The change in circumstances would lead to Simon losing his job as a Liberal Democrat councillor in his Leicestershire district and much anguish for the couple. Eventually, he discovered a way to make a difference by starting a campaign to improve access for disabled people and change attitudes. When Facebook wouldn’t let him share a tasteful image of a nude woman with a partially amputated leg, he kicked up a fuss and taped one of their representatives on the phone explaining that, at the time, the social media company censored images that some people might find disturbing. This surely must have caused a terrible headache for former Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg, now chief shill for Facebook, but the publicity did wonders for Simon’s Ability Access group, which forced the social media giant to apologise.

All rousing stuff, and the Sansomes come across as a nice couple facing a challenging situation with bravery and fortitude. But director Charlotte Fantelli really lays on the sentimentality thick, with a syrupy score and embarrassingly bad reconstructions featuring actors playing Simon and Kate (Olly Bassi and Sarah Jane Honeywell) at key points in their “journey”. It’s especially distracting that the actors look like idealised, glossier versions of the subjects they are impersonating, a discrepancy that we’re constantly reminded of because the film keeps cutting back to the actual people.