The Air I Breathe

source: The Air I Breathe

source: The Air I Breathe

source: The Air I Breathe

source: The Air I Breathe

source: The Air I Breathe

Got to make the minimums for comment content, so here i go: Piece of crap movie doesn't deserve it's rating. Summary is misleading. Actors good, but story & writing are weak. Very violent and unnecessarily so - and not reflected in the summary, synopsis and/or marketing. Multiple plot threads are supposed to intersect but are confusing in the way they do so. And there are gaping holes therein. The end is a MAJOR-LEAGUE cliché and has been done 1000 times before. PLUS, you've seen Andy Garcia in this exact same role at least a dozen times before. What makes a good film like this? Story/writing and creativity and style. This film has none of the above. Skipit. The end.

Some people might think filmmakers are starting to abuse the coincidentally intertwined multiple stories told in a jumbled time line format we've watched in the likes of 'Pulp Fiction', 'Crash', 'Babel' and 'Vantage Point', 'Amores Perros', etc. etc. etc. etc. I think it's becoming a cliché of sorts. What sets this movie apart, however, are two inappropriately hilarious scenes, both involving Sarah Michelle Gellar's character, namely SPOILER: Trista's father tap dancing to death and Trista's attempted suicide (I felt I'd been suddenly transported to a Harold Lloyd movie). I was very sad to see talent like Andy Garcia, Kevin Bacon, Julie Delpy and Forrest Whitaker wasted in this film.

The end does not make any sense cause brendan was killed several days before the girl knew that was pregnant. (so 3 weeks pregnancy) How could Brendan went to Forest's house and gave him a gun which forrest used in the bank robbery? And the girl between the house/blackmail/projects/show/hospital/suicide... just in 24 hours (remember she was 3 weeks pregnant in hospital)? lol Dint take 3 weeks to use it ... he had only 2 weeks to pay the money. so what means that was impossible bag of money fall under the girl's car during forest's death and her runaway. Well that was a mistake so obvious i don't know how people didn't notice it...i gave 1 to movie u need to complete with sense a movie before put it on street. Cast was OK and plot too but that mistake ruined all.

The Air I Breathe (2008) *1/2 Kinetic Pretentiousness from the word go. Lee has some directorial skills, but its painfully obvious that he thinks The Air I Breathe is some kind of ultra important and transcendental masterpiece. Its not. Now pretentious movies are occasionally fine, and can sometimes be even good. But when such a movie thinks its so great, well that is just a deadly recipe. There is nothing in The Air I Breathe that you can't find in a run of the mill after school special. Its not nearly as intelligent as it would have you believe, and far more shallow than it even realizes. The film is fairly well made, as far as physically putting a picture together, but in terms of writing, this thing is a mess. Its only half decent line shows up on the opening title card, credited to 19th century American clergyman Henry Ward Beecher. Even it comes off heavy handed, especially as the film goes on. The first line of actual dialogue comes soon after, spoken by Happiness (Forrest Whitaker), pondering whether or not a caterpillar realizes how beautiful it becomes when it morphs into a butterfly. Its a cringe-worthy line that may have sounded good on paper in a second rate poem, but heard aloud its nearly almost laughable. There are a number of such lines scattered throughout the film. There are also scenes of the same nature - i.e. a laughing and camera spinning Forrest Whitaker after he's cornered for robbing a bank. Or maybe a scene thats meant for laughs in which Andy Garcia's Finger's (You should ask him why he's called that) and a partner groove to Trista's new track (Aka Sorrow, aka Sarah Michelle Gellar). These kinds of scenes are rarely funny, and there is no exception here. The film's saving grace (if it can be called that) is that it is broken down into 4 segments, based on a Chinese proverb regarding the emotions happiness, pleasure, sorrow, and love. The first, happiness, is Whitaker as a pencil pusher who gets in deep with mobster Fingers. Second is pleasure, following Finger's enforcer and seer of the future Brendan Fraser. He's put in task of taking care of Fingers' trouble prone nephew Tony (Emile Hirsch). This segment is the best, and probably the only one I would give a pass. Third, Sorrow follows new pop sensation and her relationship with Fraser's mob enforcer, and the trouble their relationship brings. Finally, love follows a doctor trying to save a friend he loves deeply. Given that Happiness and Love begin and end the film, their serious weaknesses damage the film. I was looking to come around after Pleasure, but was only slowly let down by Sorrow, and slammed into the ground by Love. Lee may have an interesting future ahead of him, maybe. His direction is physically solid, even if it is nothing unique and thematically so-so. He's clearly a product of modern film-making, which I must say is becoming rather boring in all of its hyperness. This is not a lazy film, nor is it without ambition. But that is no excuse for its pretentiousness or its bad writing. I hope that Lee can make something better in the future. His direction suggests he can make good - not great - but good films given the right script. That is, if he can get over his own back patting stage to realize what he thinks is profound is actually rather banal.

This movie is great for a lot of reasons. One, and the biggest reason is Sarah Michelle Gellar. The most talented actress I've seen in the past 10 years. She's the Jodie Foster of this day and age. She does a outstanding job in this movie. She transformed herself into this whole different character, nothing like she's done before. This is her best work since Cruel Intneions and Buffy. But, besides her, Brandon Frasier, Kevin Bacon, Forrest Winikkarr and Andy Garcia were also amazing. It was a lot better than I thought it was. Sarah is my favorite actress, and I've been waiting for this movie for a long time, and it was so much better than I thought it would be(and I thought it was going to be great) I Defiantly recommend this movie to anyone, above 13 years of age! 10/10