Movie Review: The Air I Breathe
Forest Whitaker & Sarah Michelle Gellar Star in latest"Crash" Ripoff
Writer/Director Jieho Lee has told four interweaving stories of happiness, pleasure, sorrow and love. Brendan Fraser, Sarah Michelle Gellar, and Forest Whitaker star.
"The Air I Breathe" fails on almost every filmmaking level. Featuring hokey writing, inconsistent direction, and performances likely to inspire unintentional laughter. This is one "Crash" ripoff worth missing.
Happiness, Pleasure, Sorrow, and Love
“The Air I Breathe” attempts to interweave four stories derived from an ancient Chinese proverb stating that the four cornerstones of emotion are happiness, pleasure, sorrow, and love. Unfortunately, there is little to distinguish these cornerstones aside from the convenient title cards that appear throughout the film. Each story struggles with varying levels of cliché, contrivance, and unearned emotional catharsis. Writer/Director Jieho Lee has shown a level of filmmaking ineptitude matched only by the great Uwe Boll.
Four Intersecting Stories
The first of the four stories features bespectacled Forest Whitaker borrowing money from some gangsters in order to bet on a horserace that he believes to be fixed. The next story revolves around a depressed kungfu fighting henchman (Brendan Fraser) who has psychic visions of things he cannot change (seriously). The third story features a mysterious pop princess (Sarah Michelle Gellar) who finds herself in dept to a notorious mobster named “Fingers” (Andy Garcia), and the final story is about a man (Kevin Bacon) trying to find a rare blood type in order to save his true love (Julie Delpy) who was bitten by a rattlesnake.
A Film That Wants to be "Crash"
Whenever a smaller film reaches unprecedented success it is inevitable that other films of a similar vein will follow in suit in an attempt to latch on and reap some of the rewards. “The Ring” bringing us a number of Asian horror remakes, “American Pie” bringing back the “Porky’s” style comedy, and more recently “Crash”, which has resulted in the creation of this film.
A Poorly Conceived and Executed Script
The fundamental problem with “The Air I Breathe” is an unfinished, unoriginal screenplay rife with clichés and absolutely no development. Every story in this film has been told before, and with much greater skill. For example, the Kevin Bacon story features two minutes of voiceover that tells the audience that one character loves another. There is a brief dinner scene between the two where no chemistry is demonstrated. We’re then treated to fifteen minutes of Kevin Bacon running around like a mad man looking for blood to save the life of the woman he loves. We, as the audience, have no investment in his love and quite frankly have no proof of it. The emotional outbursts are almost unwarranted in the context of the film, and are ultimately embarrassing and laughable. This is through no fault of Bacon, who certainly gives it his all. It comes from poor writing and sloppy execution; or more succinctly, a lack of foresight. This love story exists in so many other more capably assembled films, and with greater effect. Essentially every story in the film fails in the same way.
Bizarre, Incoherent Direction
The underdeveloped, unintentionally amusing script is only exacerbated by amateurish and bizarre direction. The shots in this film rarely flow together. Arbitrary moments of slow motion, mixed with an inability to establish scenes, and peculiar framing techniques leave the viewer feeling a bit like they’ve stumbled into a first year student film screening. The direction is particularly amusing during the “gangster” scenes involving Emile Hirsch and Brendan Fraser. This isn’t to say that there aren’t some beautiful moments; the scene with Gellar on the roof of the hospital is wonderfully filmed; but sadly it doesn’t match the tone of the film. Really nothing in the film becomes cohesive in tone. Not to mention that there is a slow motion sequence of topless strippers dancing around. Was that really necessary? No. Does it make the film edgier? No. It, like everything else, doesn’t fit.
Sarah Michelle Gellar Gives the Strongest Performance of the Film
The performances in this film are all over the place. Emile Hirsch is particularly bad as the tough talking nephew of “Fingers”. His performance feels somewhat “high school play”ish throughout, but may generate a chuckle or two from more cynical experienced viewers. Brendan Fraser is typically wooden, responding with the same blank reaction to a death as he does to a dinner menu. On the other hand, Sarah Michelle Gellar does some good work with Trista, a slightly more grounded and depressed version of her Krysta Now character in “Southland Tales”. She shows range with some clearly limited direction, fleshing out a relatively standard misunderstood princess role.
A Film to Miss
“The Air I Breathe” aims really high in its sights -- and fails. Jieho Lee has attempted to create a film that is edgy, depressing, and beautiful, but ultimately fails in every aspect. While the film may be on par with the overrated "Crash", it is nowhere near reaching the magic of other superior dramatic entries like "Lars & the Real Girl".
