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Review by Deana Martin

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Ever since Crash won the Academy Award for Best Picture it seems as though Hollywood screenwriters have been in a race to make the next ensemble drama where everyone's story is woven together into a neat little bow. Jieho Lee's The Air I Breathe is just another in the long list of these attempts. This time, the thread holding these characters together is weak, predictable and at times, ludicrous. According to IMDb, the four interweaving stories in this film are supposed to mirror the Chinese proverb claiming that happiness, pleasure, sorrow, and love are the most important things in life. But outside of the director telling us before each sketch which emotion the following segment is supposed to represent, you do not really get anything other than depressed, stereotypical characters in ridiculously over the top life and death situations.

The film begins with Forest Whitaker's story. He's a down on his luck stockbroker who for no particular reason decides to dive headfirst into off-track horse race betting. He overhears three of his rivals at work talking about a horse race that has been fixed and miraculously, they also know precisely where the secret location is where they can place bets on the race. Somehow, Whitaker's character is able to follow the guys to this super-secret location, where he is able to simply walk right in, without any problems at all, and place a ridiculously large bet on the race. Of course, the race doesn't turn out as planned and Whitaker gets to act out the cliché "I need money now before the mobsters kill me so my only option is to rob a bank". I seriously wanted to start fast forwarding before the first 20 minutes of the movie had passed, just to get beyond the ridiculousness of it.

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I could sit here and give you a summary of the other three stories but honestly, if you read the plot synopsis on the back of the DVD, you get all you need to know. "A businessman (Whitaker) bets his life on a horse race; a gangster (Brendan Fraser) sees the future; a pop star (Sarah Michelle Gellar) falls prey to a crime boss; a doctor (Kevin Bacon) must save the love of his life." None of the storylines really have much of an impact. In fact, I almost fell asleep three or four times but my constant eye-rolling kept me from dozing off completely.

The only thing truly notable about the film is Brendan Fraser. He made the most of his character, a thug for hire who has the ability to see the future. Yeah, I couldn't believe that was really what we were supposed to buy into either. But Fraser actually showed the acting chops we haven't seen from him since School Ties. He found a way to breathe life into his role and come off as more than one dimensional, unlike the rest of the characters surrounding him. Fraser's performance, however, is not enough for me to recommend this film. But hey, I didn't like Crash either.

Film Rating: ** out of ****

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Comments (1)

**1/2 out of ****

I found The Air I Breathe to be fairly good but most of the acting could have been improved dramatically. I didn't understand why so many characters were being introduced over time (didn't read the back cover before watching), but found out at the end, when everything is tied together.

Sizlingpopcorn , July 01, 2008 | url

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