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The Air I Breathe (2007) More at IMDbPro »

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89 comments in total

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253 out of 324 people found the following comment useful :-
Unique, thoughtful, and stunning -- a winner, 12 May 2007

Author: larry-411 from United States

The Air I Breathe is stunning in many ways. It should be established right from the start that this is not a movie which allows you to check your brain at the door. It demands attention and thought. Director Jieho Lee and co-writer Bob DeRosa have crafted an intriguing work which leaves more questions than answers. And, after all, that is what art should aspire to do.

The film is based on a Chinese proverb which says that life consists of four emotions: Happiness, Pleasure, Sorrow, and Love. To be whole one must experience each emotion, and by doing so we are interconnected with all other human beings. The film itself is structured in the same fashion, with each of four segments focusing on those ideas. The lead actors portray those emotions one by one. Forest Whitaker is Happiness, Brendan Fraser is Pleasure, Sarah Michelle Gellar is Sorrow, and Kevin Bacon is Love. They anchor the four segments of the film, while the rest of the magnificent ensemble cast weaves in and out of the narrative.

The idea is somewhat fuzzy at first. This is an unconventional story with a similarly unique style. Unlike most films, the major characters don't really have major arcs in story line or performance. 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. Sarah Michelle Gellar may be the exception. She is the one who has to display a wide range of emotions, more than the others. Her character is quite tortured and goes through a lot emotionally and physically. Gellar is a very brave actress who took risks and put her heart and soul into it. She is sure to surprise many people. 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 script is filled with poetic statements, hearkening back to the Chinese proverb on which the story is based. Each segment's main character provides voice-over. And while the language is somewhat oblique, the dialogue is quite blunt and to the point.

Visually it is breathtaking, with broad sweeping images interspersed with numerous gritty close-ups of tragedy. The Air I Breathe has the look of a big budget film, although it is not. Watch for some fascinating visual effects. Hand-held with close-ups is used for some of the more chilling parts and creates tension. Hitchcock would be proud.

Surprises occur at every step of the way. One of the most startling aspects of this film is that there are moments when one may think, "No, that won't happen." And then it does. It's hard to watch at times and quite violent. There's sadness and tension. But there is also an amazingly clever use of humor in the film, and that is perhaps what is most surprising. But that's what life is. The soundtrack plays a major role in this movie, as if another character. It has an Asian feel, not just because of the filmmaker's background but because the film is based on that Chinese proverb. It was quite haunting.

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.

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94 out of 137 people found the following comment useful :-
A beautiful film based on the interconnection of human beings, 1 March 2008

Author: kengelina84 from Australia

I read several bad reviews for this film before actually being able to get my hands on a copy, but remained optimistic about it as I sat down to watch it. Thankfully, some people actually possess the ability to sit down and watch a film with an open mind and then form their own opinion, which is exactly what I did.

What I saw was not a pretentious portrayal of "cheap irony" in which the viewer lives in "Gellar's world". What I saw was a creative endeavour to intertwine four strangers through four major emotions, thus showing that through these emotions, everyone is connected - whether or not they are aware of it. This is what sociologists study and discuss everyday.

The script was performed sensationally, by a stellar cast (Brendan Frasier, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Andy Garcia, Kevin Bacon, Forest Whitaker), encompassing a gritty, fast paced storyline, with melancholic overtones. This film is not all about Gellar - she gives a heart wrenching performance as Trista, but the film is dedicated as much to Garcia, Frasier and Bacon as it is to her. Each performance is worth its weight in gold - Garcia is frightening as mafia boss "Fingers", Frasier pulls at your heart with his resignation to the terrible fates of the people around him and Bacon and Whitaker will surely gain your sympathy with the sheer level of their desperation.

The only thing this film is guilty of is invoking emotion and thought from its viewers - and isn't that the reason to watch it in the first place?

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131 out of 215 people found the following comment useful :-
Core -Shaker, 19 December 2007

Author: xnofeelingsx from Greece

This is one of the movies that if you pay close attention to the story and what the message is you will find yourself profoundly stupid and clueless when it comes to basic human emotions and how everything is somehow connected.(chaos theory...?) the performances were absolutely amazing.I'd never seen Sarah Michelle Gellar portray such a role so well,she really moved me as Sorrow and Forest Whitaker as well.The roles fit the actors like a glove.the photography is beautiful.the story is very moving and the ending surprising. loved it +++++++ Maybe it wont make it as one of the greatest films ever but it's the kind of movie i'd like to store and watch again sometime later in the future instead of some box office hit.

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85 out of 145 people found the following comment useful :-
We all need a way out.., 15 February 2008

Author: swAppp from Lithuania

To begin with, there were times when people didn't care about the money, didn't cry about work, popularity or power.. However, those lovely times are way back in ancient civilizations, while nowadays the religion, the bank and pure emotions steal the scene. These are the subjects I were thinking about a lot lately and probably some of you did too. Therefore, this movie probably was the best movie I could have watched at this part of my life. I did, and now I am happy.

The story of this movie could be easily summarized by one exact quote of just a random-looking worker from the movie: "I need a way out". I couldn't agree more - in todays universe, even more in my country, there are people who live to work. They live to eat, they live to buy some goods and sometimes, they just live to give their problems away to other people... This is actually all covered in this movie by a director that I have never heard of, but it might be a time for me to start learning his name. I began loving this movie from very first fifth minute- to the very end.

The cast is amazing - both main and supporting actors gave me their best. Bacon, Whitaker, Gellar, Fraser, Garsia, Hirch - what a nice choice for this movie! However, if you are not really open minded, you may not like their characters, you may not like the plot, but still, you will love the acting. Persuasive, smart and well done. That's how I would rate the crew members of this movie.

This leads to n awfully understandable conclusion - "The Air I Breathe" is actually one of the best movies I have seen this year, only "25 Hour" moved me more.. Even after seeing Ed's "25 Hour" i was quick to state that crime/drama is from now on my most favorite genre of the movie. Didn't take long to prove that it actually is - thanks to the amazing "The Air I Breathe"

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50 out of 84 people found the following comment useful :-
Cheap Pulp Fiction - Clichés upon Clichés, 27 January 2008

Author: prall from United States

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Spoiler Warning! This film was filled with clichés plot lines and events - with predictable outcomes from cartoon characters who are supposed to represent the four emotions: happiness, pleasure, sorrow and love. The author tries to be clever and have the characters experience events almost opposite of their stated emotion. Love is Love lost, Happiness is a tragic end, Pleasure is a tortured soul, and Sorrow is the lucky escape from a terrible situation ( which I wouldn't expect to last long in any case). I know the plot is supposed to "challenge" the audience, but creating a totally obvious twist does not a twist make. Trying to make an Altman like Puzzle Piece plot where the separate stories all combine in the end was over-the-top contrived in this film. I couldn't believe the film stooping so low as to introduce snakes and the clichés scene of a person hanging off a building with one hand while holding another person from falling to their death. The film has the entertainment of cheap pulp fiction - so it's not totally bad.

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35 out of 61 people found the following comment useful :-
A very well told story about human emotions!, 20 February 2008

Author: red_identity from United States

First of all, this film did have problems. There were a lot of flaws, and some of the coincidences seemed stupid and irrelevant, but it does not fail to show emotion. The emotions are all scattered. Not just one person can have one, and I think that is the point of the film. My first time seeing it, i thought it was just a GOOD film. After seeing it over three times, i can really say it is a very great film. The Acting is phenomenal, and Sarah Michelle Gellar gives her best performance to date. She really shows what she is capable of. She portrays the right signs of Sorrow. Andy Garcia was also great. The direction, from a first time director, was really amazing. The were a lot of beautiful scenes, great cinematography. It is a pleasure to watch. Some of the songs played, are kinda cheesy, but those songs go away fast. BUT the score is truly amazing. It totally captures the right feel that the film portrayed. The film should have been longer. It was only 90 minutes, it was very fast paced. They should have shown more screen time with Gellar and Bacon. The rushed feeling has a positive side to it. The film never gets boring. It grabs you completely(and for some people, that is what they want). Yes, the biggest problem is the screenplay, which at times seems silly, some of the dialogue, but the film also has powerful moments and some GREAT dialogue(sort of like the 2004 film Crash). Overall, I have fallen in love with it. It is very underrated, and some of the negative feedback it has received is not worth it. See it, expect flaws, but see it expecting something big, something about human complexity, and you will not be disappointed.

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50 out of 93 people found the following comment useful :-
The Air I Breathe, 16 February 2008
Author: eleven8 from Iceland

It's interesting. This film did receive a lot of bad reviews from most film critics. But then again, this film is not intended for the educated and demanding critics.

It's rather intended for the oblivious Generation X who is lost in chaos and holds on to the little bit of hope that is left in a bleak future yet to come.(you know who you are)

The Air I Breath tells a story of amazing yet globally recognizable incidences and displays numerous examples of clairvoyance, Deja-Vu, synchronicity and coincidence from a somewhat Zen/Jungian point of view, although far more pessimistic.

The plot is told from various perspectives that all intervene in one way or the other a la Magnolia/Pulp Fiction/etc. Those who enjoyed flicks like The Butterfly Effect and Donnie Darko will possibly possess the right view and the right questions to enjoy this film.

The film has a comic book/graphic novel taste to it, and those familiar with Neil Gaiman's work should be in for a treat. The photography vaguely reminded me of Sin City although it's not half as good. The major problem lies with the Asian Soap Opera dialog that gets cheesy after a while and easily evokes the narrow mindedness and irritation of the cynical viewers.

This film is more intended for the young, open minded New Serenity movement who seek answers and comfort in life.

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19 out of 32 people found the following comment useful :-
a nauseating circle, 7 May 2008

Author: Hugo Sousa from Portugal

This was pure crap.

The clichés are everywhere indeed. The plot of the movie is ridiculous, trying to unite 4 or 5 or whatever different stories in ways that are just completely dumb. Scenes that had no sense at all! They were trying to create a circle between characters, making them all interact and making their lives coincide in some point but they had nothing so they joined dots with preposterous lines.

It doesn't matter that it has been done before! They can do it over and over again but please, get a proper story! don't get these far-fetched absurd little uninteresting stories and then unite them all with the point that they (don't) have in common.

the reason I gave it a 4/10 is simply because Forest, Garcia and Bacon delivered very very well otherwise the movie would have been even more hateful.

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9 out of 13 people found the following comment useful :-
Excellent acting by Garcia & Whitaker can't save this dog, 15 July 2008

Author: rlange-3 from United States

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

It starts off well with the first of four vignettes, pulled through by an outstanding acting job by Forest Whitaker. The second vignette is OK, because Andy Garcia does a great job as the villain. But Geller is once again sadly disappointing, and by the middle of the movie it starts to disintegrate. By the last act, it is so full of plot holes it's like a piece of moldy Swiss cheese.

Kevin Bacon is supposed to be an emergency room doctor, but acts like someone being electrocuted while having a tantrum. A woman he loves has been bitten by a snake and he clearly has no real idea about how to handle the situation -- can he be that incompetent? Some research tech is screaming at him that she must have a transfusion within 24 hours or she will die. But she isn't even given an IV. He runs around screaming at everyone supposedly trying to find this rare blood type, but this is not the first line of defense for Russel's viper envenomation. It would not have been that difficult to make this episode realistic, but nothing short of a Valium transfusion would have saved Bacon's character. A transfusion is obtained and she is magically transformed into the picture of health. There's a monitor but she doesn't even have a line in; I guess they ditched realism for the ooh gosh wow picture of the monitor. Funny how that monitor doesn't even seem to be attached to the patient. This is the kind of thing you would expect in an ultra low budget flick. Most people have been to a hospital and know things just don't work that way.

It's not just the technical medical aspects that are botched. Geller is well protected by all kinds of bodyguards, but in spite of her being in a clearly precarious state of mental health all attendants melt away to allow her to climb out on the roof in an attempted suicide. Nobody notices she is missing. And Bacon runs up what must be at least 40 flights of stairs, again suddenly unmolested by the previously ubiquitous bodyguards who have conveniently disappeared. He arrives with no sign of fatigue and rescues Geller in what has to be one of the hokiest scenes ever to make it into a movie. It's just so poorly acted and set up as to make the entire sequence laughable, especially the diaphanous garment taking flight at the end. This is pure corn by this point. I was hoping they would just come crashing down and the movie would end.

Then Geller, who has just attempted an act of suicide is discharged without any apparent evaluation. It's OK because Bacon and Geller hugged each other so she's just fine and ready for a casual discharge. They aren't even trying to make this believable anymore.

A cheesy bow tie follows to wrap the movie up and try to integrate the vignettes. At least the epilogue was over quickly.

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21 out of 38 people found the following comment useful :-
Happiness, Pleasure, Sorrow, Love…The Air I Breathe, 2 March 2008

Author: babubhaut from buffalo, ny, usa

First-time director Jieho Lee has brought us the next installment of the multiple stories genre threaded together as though fate and coincidence are the name of the game. This type of narrative has been around for a long time, most definitely before Robert Altman's Short Cuts, but at least there is an example from 15 years ago, and I can't rack the brains for an earlier one at this time. The most well known to those out there today is of course Oscar-winner Crash. Lee's The Air I Breathe, based on an ancient Chinese proverb that life can be broken down into the four emotional cornerstones of Happiness, Pleasure, Sorrow, and Love, is not as good as Haggis' film, and I think even that one is overrated. It's not that I disliked this one, I actually found a lot that I really loved, unfortunately, there's more that feels overdone, overwritten, and absolutely unrealistic. One thing you can't fault it for, however, is the superb cast and acting.

Some of the dialogue is almost too obvious, at times having answers repeat all the words in the question…just a bad redundancy as though the audience might not comprehend a short answer. These characters are so important in the scheme of each other's lives that everything out of their mouths needs to be so well crafted that it becomes stiff. The delivery, though, is almost consistently superb. Brendan Fraser is great in a rare serious role, the kind of stuff that began his career. Very stoic and deliberate in all he does, you begin to feel for him as the stone façade starts to falter. Due to the story-structure going out of order, we see some of this emotional evolution before the catalyst for it, but once that event occurs, it makes everything before it make more sense and I actually think it was handled well as a result. Even his ability to see the future was utilized in a realistic way that it never felt like a gimmick, just a skill he had and used. The best actor, again as almost always, is Forest Whitaker as a by-the-books successful man who has finally realized that his pristine life is devoid of true happiness. No material needs can fill the void of actually living, whether living wealthy or poorly, it is the act of adventure and excitement that is necessary to enjoy. His final reaction of pure adulation is the best part of the film and it happens about twenty minutes in.

One would think that a story as involving as this would have pretty equal billing for all roles, but that is not true. Whitaker and Kevin Bacon are underused while Fraser is involved at almost every turn. Andy Garcia, however, is the one that stays the most constant throughout. As a hardnosed bookie/gangster, nicknamed "Fingers," Garcia shines, something that usually doesn't occur with him of late. He is good at this type of role and it was nice to see him sink his teeth into it. Even Sarah Michelle Gellar had her moments, although few, to show that maybe she can do more than Scooby-Doo and every year's Japanese horror remake. Mention also needs to go to Clark Gregg in a small, but funny role, and Emile Hirsch as Garcia's nephew, appearing to be a pawn to the plot, but in actuality becomes a role with payoff.

As far as the style went, I can't complain too much. The correlations between each thread is well conceived if not totally contrived to benefit the story. I enjoyed the transitions, especially at the start with multiple layers and progressions. I can't quite recall if that is the only part in which it was used, though. The music was also a help; very Explosions in the Sky-like, the score enhanced each moment it was used. In the end, the film just couldn't keep its bloated, heavy-handed script up. Even utilizing the four emotions as vignette titles (something used similarly in the superior The Dead Girl) was so obvious that it became laughable. Each instance made you know first thing that they will be the exact opposite of that title despite the lead thinking they were—happiness was really depression, pleasure was really regret, sorrow was really vanity, and love was desperation. Every emotion is more of a backhanded overview that is manipulated in order to serve the tale, rather than allowing the tale to serve the emotions that are supposed to be back-boning it.

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