The Air I Breathe (2007)
Average Rating: 3.8/10
Reviews Counted: 26
Fresh: 3 | Rotten: 23
The Air I Breathe is a jumbled indie production that accomplishes little save for the squandering of a talented cast.
Average Rating: 3.3/10
Critic Reviews: 8
Fresh: 0 | Rotten: 8
The Air I Breathe is a jumbled indie production that accomplishes little save for the squandering of a talented cast.
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Average Rating: 3.4/5
User Ratings: 22,553
My Rating
Movie Info
Four stories, representing the emotional principles of love, pleasure, sorrow, and happiness, come together in this episodic drama from first-time director Jieho Lee. A powerful crime boss, Fingers (Andy Garcia), subtly controls the destinies of four people whose circumstances have brought them to a crossroads in their lives. A quiet business executive (Forest Whitaker) is told that an upcoming horse race has been rigged and bets everything he has on his belief that the story is true. A noted
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Cast
-
Forest Whitaker
Happiness -
Brendan Fraser
Pleasure -
Sarah Michelle Gellar
Sorrow -
Kevin Bacon
Love -
Andy Garcia
Fingers -
Julie Delpy
Gina -
Clark Gregg
Henry -
Emile Hirsch
Tony -
Cecilia Suárez
Allison -
Kelly Hu
Jiyoung -
Evan Parke
Danny -
Taylor Nichols
Sorrow's Father -
Victor Rivers
Eddie -
Todd Stashwick
Frank -
Jon Bernthal
Interviewer -
Will Maier
Mr. Parks -
Eduardo Victoria
Banker 1 -
Salvador García Ruiz
Banker 2 -
John Cho
Banker 3 -
Jason Dolley
Young Pleasure -
Sasha Pieterse
Young Sorrow -
Alex Terminel
Markie -
Fervio Castillo
Young Love -
Kari Wuhrer
Correspondent -
Josh Flaum
Gina's Assistant -
Norma Angelica
Clothing Shop Woman -
Lenny Zundel
Clothing Shop Owner -
Jack Koenig
Seedy Old Man -
George Belanger
Old Gangster -
Tomas Goros
Gangster -
Joan Seudra Morales
Gangaster -
Alejandro De La Pena
Gangaster -
Diana Garcia
Tony's Brunette -
Claudia Cervantes
Tony's Red Head -
Andrew Deichman
Pizza Delivery Guy -
Tania Himelfarb
Young Heidi -
Sheery Ham Bernard
Nurse 1 -
Lisa Owen
Nurse 2 -
Emilio Savinni
Tuddy -
Rodrigo Santacruz
Teenager 1 -
Catherine Papile
Teenage Girl 2
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The Air I Breathe Trailer & Photos
All Critics (27) | Top Critics (9) | Fresh (3) | Rotten (23)
Each story has its moments, but Air lacks an overarching vision.
Top CriticBrendan Fraser is Pleasure, Sarah Michelle Gellar is Sorrow, Kevin Bacon is Love, Forest Whitaker is Happiness, and the director is Pretension.
I can't fault any of the actors for anything other than bad judgment. Their performances are fine, but a good fortune cookie might have told them to stay away from this.
A stew of cheap irony, ponderous but meaningless allegory, violence and pretension, the movie is all borrowed style and calculated pandering. It does, however, get more ludicrous by the minute. So in that sense, it's good for an occasional laugh.
With any luck, The Air I Breathe should be the last gasp of the faux-Altmanesque school of serendipitous storytelling.
Morosely pretentious.
Pretentious in its tone, ambitious in its goals, and incompetent in its execution, The Air I Breathe is a polluted mess despite its good intentions.
As the plot strands begin to coalesce everything becomes far too overwrought.
The movie takes itself way too seriously, and it doesn't add up to much, but, nevertheless, it's borderline entertaining.
Your appreciation of this circular plotting will have a great deal to do with how tongue-in-cheek you believe the film is
Mr. Lee is a former director of Asian music videos, which explains why his debut feature, from the high-octane opening credits to the Marnie-esque ending, is all style and no substance.
A perfectly awful example of a certain breed of American indie film that brings together a lot of familiar faces for an ensemble drama about...nothing.
None of the four morality plays ... are necessarily original in plot, nor is the film itself particularly innovative in its structure ... it just seems flat and useless.
Aside from demonstrating how liberation and change can occur even at the most dire turn of events, it's not exactly clear exactly what his overly ambitious drama is trying to say.
not a nihilistic work of cinematic art, but a laugh-out-loud slapstick free-for-all.
Four unappealing mini-dramas about happiness, pleasure, sorrow, and love.
Ah, January, hallowed dustbin for projects half-baked, too cooked, or both, as in the case of this overstuffed actioner.
It's particularly frustrating to watch Whittaker, the strongest thespian of the bunch, desperately mine for gold in a narrative landslide.
Audience Reviews for The Air I Breathe
Super Reviewer
Apparently the movie is based on some kind of theory that life revolves around four emotional cornerstones - Happiness, Pleasure, Sorrow & Love. But the only thing the movie can take credit for is in taking the audience to the realms of a fifth one - BORED TO DEATH.
Super Reviewer
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I have to quote Kyle Smith of the New York Post: "Brendan Fraser is Pleasure, Sarah Michelle Gellar is Sorrow, Kevin Bacon is Love, Forest Whitaker is Happiness, and the director is Pretension." What a hilariously true line. The film seems to want to say something profound, but I have no idea what it is. While most of the performances are fine, Brendan Fraser is grotesquely miscast. Playful and exuberant most times, Fraser is forced to adopt a stern, sullen, unaffected demeanor, and it doesn't suit him; in fact, I often hoped that he would break into a wide grin and exclaim "Just kidding" before doing cartwheels down a dark alley. Andy Garcia is bipolar, irrationally erupting into screams after delivering most of his lines in a menacing whisper, and whoever thought it original to name a gangster "Fingers" should lose a finger.
I did like how the film came together. It's not near the Altman Standard, but it's more clever than I was expecting. And I also liked the idea behind the Fraser character: just because one can see the future doesn't mean that one can change it.
Overall, the Post sums this film up best: it's remarkably pretentious.