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Critics Consensus: The Air I Breathe is a jumbled indie production that accomplishes little save for the squandering of a talented cast.
Critic Consensus: The Air I Breathe is a jumbled indie production that accomplishes little save for the squandering of a talented cast.
All Critics (26) | Top Critics (9) | Fresh (3) | Rotten (23)
Each story has its moments, but Air lacks an overarching vision.
Brendan 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.
Ah, January, hallowed dustbin for projects half-baked, too cooked, or both, as in the case of this overstuffed actioner.
With any luck, The Air I Breathe should be the last gasp of the faux-Altmanesque school of serendipitous storytelling.
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.
Four stories revolving around a gangster come together. 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.
Super Reviewer
Yet another done-to-death, serendipitous, connecting-the-dots kind of movie. Only reason I walked into this one is because of the names Kevin Bacon and Julie Delpy in the cast sheet, and their bit parts were over within the blink of an eye. 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.
a strong cast and the lead characters all portray an emotion...... The four chapters are titled Happiness, Pleasure, Sorrow, and Love, each has a main character known only by the chapters title.... happiness (Forest Whitaker) a down on his luck man who attempts to find happiness in a shady gambling hall, where things go terribly wrong. Pleasure (Brendan Fraser) a man who can see a few minutes into the future, but is frustrated at his inability to change the outcomes he sees. Sorrow (Sarah Michelle Gellar) a singer whose contract was handed over to the mob as part of a payoff. Sorrow is unhappy being owned by the mob, but leaving won't be so easy. Love (Kevin Bacon) a doctor, madly in love with his friends dying wife, she needs a transfusion, but her rare blood type is difficult to find. Love resorts to less than ideal means to obtain the blood she needs... So there you have it. Happiness, Pleasure, Sorrow, and Love. The point is that these are the four parts of every persons life and you cant experience one without also experiencing the others.,so, the four emotions are forever intertwined within us all,ok,so similarly, the four chapters of this movie intertwine, sometimes in very unexpected ways.
Interesting... no, really. It was kinda of Crash-y but more violent. And I really liked the end. Wish that the Love (Kevin Bacon) story line had more oomph to it, but I think in these fractional tales, one story line usually gets a little shafted. But really, the acting was great, the overall concept was very nice and the filming was beautiful. Oh, and Sarah Michelle Gellar looked stunning in every single frame of this film...
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