The Air I Breathe
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Movie Reviews of The Air I Breathe
Movie Review: The Air I Breathe-A Rough Gem for Some Viewers
Summary: 4 Stars
First of all I am biased: I love films that tell stories about lives that impact other lives through small coincidental moments. Another reviewer of this movie used the term "butterfly effect." I automatically give this kind of film three stars even if it is a Tom and Jerry cartoon. Given this bias, I am rating this film four and a half stars because I was quite taken by the theme that tied the four stories together.
The rest is spoiler, so don't read any further unless you have seen the film already.
For me at least, this film was about the monotony and the banality of our lives that are the by product of conformity, routine and safety. Each of the characters in the four stories are leading lives of quiet desparation. Their daily life consists of monotonous routine and they are all emotionally inert.
Each character is protected and "safe" within the framework of their life and each takes a huge risk that catapaults them out of their cocoons into something bigger then their original selves. Through risk, danger, and moments of intense and reawakened feeling, they experience, however briefly,a peak moment of humanity that makes the risk worthwhile even though it may end in death.
The "Happiness" segment is about a stockbroker, a man who jumped through all the right hoops, fit quietly into society, and now live on the verge of despair until the moment he takes a monumental risk, and steps outside his boundaries to spend a glorious hour as a criminal living entirely in the moment, totally alive right up to the moment of his death, having had one brief shining moment of a happiness that bordered on ecstacy.
"Pleasure" gives us a criminal whose life, although outside the law, is equally as boring and banal as the stockbrokers because of its total predictability and unvarying routine. When circumstances destoy his safety net, our criminal experiences pleasure: initially from the experience of pain and subsequently from caring for someone other than himself.
"Sorrow" is the story of an almost-celebrity singer who surrounded by entourage and the insulation of an entatainer's world is also living a life of monotony and banality. With the promise of stardom on the horizen, the singer destroys her safety net by choosing freedom and is awakened to her humanity through fear and sorrow.
"Love" is yet another view of the same theme. In this case a physician who lost the love of his life because he opted for emotional safety and failed to act. The eminent death of his loves pushes him outside his comfortable boundaries and he takes action in ways that would have been beyond the self-efacing ways of his ordinary and monotonous life.
When all is said and done, the film is about breaking boundaries to find a moment of passion and of real humanity, regardless of the consequences. The cast, from the leads to the supporting roles, were all very good, and in some cases outstanding. Actors of the stature of Whitaker, Fraser, Geller, Bacon and Delpy deserve our thanks for accepting parts in small budget films such as these. They bring a good script to life, and provide opportunities for new indie directors.
The Air I Breathe [Blu-ray]
Movie Review: Alright Movie with Remarkable Cast
Summary: 4 Stars
The Air I Breathe is a deeply sad, richly plotted drama centered around an Ancient Chinese proverb that all life is divided into four basic emotions; Happiness, Pleasure, Sorrow, and Love. The film is divided into four short films, each centered on one of those four emotions, that all intersect and shape the fate of each other's main character. First-time writer/director Jeiho Lee isn't entirely successful, however, as this fiercely ambitious drama is wrought with powerful performances but little else. It is entirely unclear what this film is trying to say.
One can assume that Lee was attempting a parable on how we all try to fill our lives with these emotions.... or maybe that none of these emotions are attainable? It's a truly baffling screenplay. The dialogue is clunky, the characters underdeveloped and unsure of their direction, and yet the exceptionally powerful performances ground the film in ways it almost doesn't deserve. The frenetic editing serves neither to enhance the story nor to add suspense to the proceedings. This ambitious little drama would have been much better served with an experienced director with a knack for subtlety, something sorely lacking in this pieces.
But those performances! With a cast of Oscar winners and nominees, we are treated to nothing but the best these actors have to offer. Andy Garcia chews the scenery as gangster Fingers, who is one of the few characters with relevance to each of the film's subplots, but his over-the-top antics shows him a much more dept actor than he has been credit for over the years; he knows this script is silly. Brendan Fraser sulks as the moral center of the story, Emile Hirsch babbles as Fingers' vulgar nephew, Forest Whitaker whimpers as a sniveling banker, and Sarah Michelle Gellar unexpectedly shines above the rest in an award-worthy, career high performances as a rising pop star. Gellar truly excels at the role, and embellishes it with an understated grace and innocence. What is ironic is that it is she who most needed this film to be a success, and it is she who will be most affected by the film's failure to receive a theatrical release. It's a shame, too - this could have been the film that cemented her status in Hollywood as more than just the star of Buffy.
Despite these unusually strong performances, the movie never fully gels; The crime isn't criminal enough, the violence isn't violent enough, and the drama isn't dramatic enough. What would have greatly benefited the piece is a longer running time, which would have allowed the characters to blossom as more than just caricatures. The actors try to make these people feel real, but we simply don't see enough of any of them to truly understand what makes them tick. Nor do we see enough interaction among them to see why their connections with each other is relevant. Again, this all falls to the inexperience of director Jeiho Lee. He has crafted an entertaining crime drama, and proven to the world that Sarah Michelle Gellar deserves better than teen horror films, but he fall just short of his attempts at reflection on the human spirit.
Movie Review: Thought provoking, intriguing, intense. Leading Thespians chose it, SO search for what they felt so compelled to tell.
Summary: 4 Stars
This film fits the "Crash" formula, although it's hardly a prizewinner - which is not to say it's awful. The movie takes itself way too seriously, and it doesn't add up to much, but, nevertheless, it's borderline entertaining and philosophically stimulating. The performances have a certain tanginess. Perhaps the stars felt freer than usual because, thanks to the film's episodic structure, none of them had to carry the entire movie.
Its layered, interconnected and thought provoking. Definitely allegorical and disturbingly real.
The first of four episodes focuses on a mousy, unhappy businessman (Forest Whitaker, convincingly pathetic) who overhears a tip on a horse race. He tries to change his life by taking a loan from mobsters and betting it all on a horse. Along the way, this man encounters a mob henchman (Brendan Fraser, strong and often silent), and we eventually discover that he can see the future. The second section of the film concerns what happens when the mob kingpin (a commanding Andy Garcia) assigns this henchman the task of keeping an eye on his out-of-control nephew (Emile Hirsch, amusingly amok).
In part four, an up-and-coming singer (Sarah Michelle Gellar, effectively distraught) abruptly learns that the kingpin has acquired her management contract. She wants nothing to do with him but discovers that his desire to control her career is the kind of offer you can't refuse.
The final segment concerns a doctor (a properly pensive Kevin Bacon) who loves a woman (Julie Delpy, appropriately angelic) who suddenly finds herself at death's door. It's up to the doctor to devise a plan to save her - a plan that somehow includes the singer from the previous segment. And to keep the story spinning round and round, it turns out that the singer has a connection to the businessman from the first segment.
If this sounds rather contrived, it is. And the various parts of the story don't robviously fit together.
The performances give the film a lift. And if the accomplished, eclectic cast was not enough to put The Air I Breathe in contention for a major award, it certainly could help to make you a winner the next time you play Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.
Movie Review: Film with a great cast from a no-name director.
Summary: 4 Stars
Before I start, I have to say something: I tend to watch movies haphazardly, meaning I'll watch one for 25 minutes, pause it and then go do something else. Unless I am in a movie theater, I can't spend more than 30 minutes watching a film; except for this one. First thing I noticed while watching this was the sound: it has fantastic music, music that goes from pure drums to orchestrated magic. One thing to note is the dialogue, it's chock full of one-liners that will sadly go unnoticed during a first watch.
In summary, four very different characters' lives come together in an unassuming manner and the presentation is delivered in a fantastic manner. The dialogue from each character is pitch-perfect and the camera angles are well-used. I found myself jumping out of my seat at multiple times and could feel my heart pounding in anticipation at times of suspense waiting for the next scene. Each character did a fantastic job with their part, even the goons.
This is a stellar movie with quite a stunning cast. The problem with movies such as this one lies in the publicity and director's name. I had never heard if the director until I had watched the film and, sad to say, almost passed on watching this intellectually provocative piece of cinema. I tend to base my initial opinion about movies on other peoples' reviews and that can be a good thing; or a bad thing.
This may sound like one of those "embellishing" reviews but I did find a few problems with the film. If you are looking for a movie with deeper meaning or sophisticated explanation, you will not find it here. The dialogue is rich, yes, but the entire plot summary will leave you wanting for more. There are a few flash-backs and they work well from detracting from the current state of things but all in all, there really isn't any ground-breaking life-pondering message in this film. It's a good movie though the ending, as I have said before, will leave you asking for more.
Movie Review: The Air I Breathe
Summary: 4 Stars
A clumsy clerk overhears the conversation of three coworkers in the toilet about a fix in a horse race, and bets a large amount. He loses the bet and owes the money to the dangerous and powerful mobster Fingers. A gangster has the ability of foreseeing the future and works for Fingers; he is assigned to collect money for the boss with his troublemaker nephew Tony and is beat up by a gang. The manager of the pop-star Trista loses her contract to Fingers without her agreement and she is threatened by the gangster. A doctor seeks a blood donor that might have a rare blood type to save the life of his passion. While some may find a couple of the actors a bit deadpan, they pretty much are solid throughout while consistent in their characterizations. Whitaker and Fraser especially fit that description. Both are quite stoic in their roles, but that's what the story demands. Bacon is a delight and is perfectly cast as a would-be hero. Andy Garcia is a chilling and devilish nemesis throughout, while Emile Hirsch provides some comic relief in his brief appearance. "The Air I Breathe" is, at its heart, a character piece which follows a general theme. Seems simple. On the face of it, it plays out like a crime drama. But there's more to it, and it takes patience and thought to get to the point of it. Not everyone will be able to do that. But it is definitely worth the effort.